VOLUME 9 ISSUE 40

www. twitter.com/suntci Website: www.suntci.com Email: [email protected] Tel: 649-946-8542 Fax: 649-941-3281

$1.00NOVEMBER 11TH - NOVEMBER 16TH, 2013 VOLUME 9 - No. 40

Chief Justice

resigns

PAGE 7

Haitians escape from

Detention Centre

PAGE 9

UK could review $260M loan

guaranteePAGE 8

Anglican Bishop says Government

has no powerPAGE 11

FORMER AG WANTSFORMER AG WANTS$1MILLION FROM TCIG$1MILLION FROM TCIG

WESLEY METHODIST HIGH IS NATIONAL DEBATE WINNER:

Wesley Methodist was crowned champion of the Na-

tional High School Debate competition held at the Occa-

sions Ballroom located at the Airport Hotel, Airport Road,

Providenciales, on Thursday (November 7).

The school’s second speaker Willandra Elliot (third

from left) was crowned best speaker. The schools debat-

ed the moot: “Be it resolved that the most effi cient model

for achieving zero new infections and deaths is a change

in behavior”. Wesley Methodist opposed the moot. Cham-

pions for Christ was second place winners, while Brit-

ish West Indies Collegiate and TCIPS tied for third place.

In the photo, Acting Premier and Minister for Education

Youth and Sport Hon. Akierra Missick (left) presents the

Wesley Methodist team with the winning trophy. Sharing

in the moment at right is Aldora Robinson, National HIV/

AIDS Coordinator.

BY HAYDEN BOYCEPUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Former Attorney General Huw Shepheard, who abruptly re-

signed last month under a cloud of controversy, is seeking US$1million from the Turks and Caicos Islands Government for alleged constructive dismissal.

Impeccable sources told The SUN that Shepheard outlined the amount and nature of his claims in a letter to Governor Peter Beckingham.

According to the source, Shep-heard indicated in the letter that he was forced to resign, hence his claim for constructive dismissal.

The letter from Shepheard is the latest salvo in a burgeoning battle and a stormy relationship between the former Attorney General and the Dr. Rufus Ewing-led Cabinet, which resulted in Ewing fi ling court action seeking clarity on the Constitutional powers of the post of Attorney Gen-eral.

Shepheard, who resigned on Oc-tober 30th, effective November 1st, had hitherto asserted that he had no intentions of leaving that post, de-spite stinging rebukes and strident calls for him to quit, from several sections of the Turks and Caicos Is-lands community.

The SUN understands that after fi nally resigning, Shepheard, who was widely regarded as being arro-gant and stubborn, quickly packed his bags and moved back to the Unit-ed Kingdom.

“He just couldn’t take the pressure and decided that it was in his best in-terest to leave the post and the coun-try. The whole thing was taking a se-rious toll on him,” the source told the SUN, requesting anonymity.

Speculation has been rife that Shepheard’s resignation had to do CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

with the visit to the Turks and Cai-cos Islands of Dr. Peter Hayes, head of the Foreign and Commonwealth Offi ce, but this was denied by UK of-fi cial.

Asked as to whether or not his trip has anything to do with the attor-ney general’s resignation Hayes re-plied: “No, no, it is just coincidence. He has resigned, we are sorry to hear that he has resigned. He is also mak-

ing a claim against the TCI Govern-ment, and so, it is a legal matter. But our determination is to make sure that there is a new attorney (gener-al) as soon as possible, and the work of the attorney’s offi ce in the cham-bers continues.”

While on a familiarization walk with Minister of Home Affairs and Public Safety Hon. Amanda Mis-sick in the Kew Town constituency

on Wednesday (November 6), Gov-ernor Peter Beckingham was asked for an update on the matter and re-plied: “It is pretty clear he resigned last week, and I gather, left the coun-try, or so I am told. And I was delight-ed to sign in his deputy (Rhondalee Braithwaite-Knowles) as the acting attorney general.

Page 2NOVEMBER 11TH - NOVEMBER 16TH, 2013 TURKS & CAICOS SUN

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“I think she is a tremendous per-son, that’s the impression I have got, I have haven’t seen her for very long Obviously, I have been here only a month. I am looking forward to working with her. I was in touch with her today already, and I think it is tremendous – as they say – that she stepped up to the plate and take on the challenges of the job. It is go-ing to be very hard for her and for others in the chambers. But I am sure she is absolutely up to it.”

Shepheard, who came to the Turks and Caicos Islands from Ber-muda where he was a Crown Coun-sel, a rather junior post, was never warmly-embraced or greatly admired country-wide.

In addition to irking many per-sons, including certain investors, he was involved in a physical tussle with one of his own colleagues, vet-eran prosecutor Leonard Franklyn, who had reported Attorney General Huw Shepheard to the police for as-saulting him.

A settlement was subsequently reached and the matter was with-drawn, with no charges being laid against Shepheard.

To fi ght his million-dollar battle, Shepheard has engaged the services of a high-powered legal team from the UK. Sources told the SUN that his lawyers are not Edward Wild-man Palmer, the law fi rm which, un-der Shepheard’s watch was paid in excess of US$13million to represent the Turks and Caicos Islands Govern-ment in civil recovery actions.

However, questions are being raised about who will defend the Turks and Caicos Islands Govern-ment in the law suit that is being brought by Shepheard.

Analysts said it would be highly unlikely, not to mention perceivably inappropriate, for Acting Attorney General Rhondalee Braithwaite-Knowles or anyone else in the AG’s Chambers, to be going up against their former boss.

Other observers told the SUN that Shepheard faces a daunting task of winning the constructive dismissal case against the Turks and Caicos Is-lands Government, in circumstanc-es where he resigned on his volition and was not sacked.

“If, as he had said, his contract re-newal was legal and Constitution-al, why did he resign?” one lawyer asked. “He should have stuck to his

word and let the law suit which the Premier brought against him take its course in the courts.”

Shepheard, who presided over one of the most expensive, rancor-ous and contentious legal eras in the history of the Turks and Caicos Is-lands, was under mounting pressure for many months.

He conceded this much. When he returned from a lengthy vacation in September this year, he immediately launched a public relations defence by reaching out to those who have called for his removal.

He stated then, “As Attorney Gen-eral, I have always worked tirelessly in the public interest of the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands. My appointment was legal, in line with the Constitution, as part of UK Min-isters’ commitment to deliver good governance and the rule of law for everyone in the islands. I have a tre-mendous respect for the wide range of responsibilities attached to this esteemed offi ce, and look forward to continuing to work with the Hon Premier, his Ministers, Cabinet and the other key Constitutional insti-tutions and bodies in support of de-mocracy here.”

He added: “Of course I know

about the criticism of me while I have been away. This has been a dif-fi cult experience, but it is also poten-tially enriching for anyone in public offi ce to be given a clear picture of what is thought of them every now and again,” he added. Despite the headlines, I hold no grudges. The position of Attorney General in the Turks and Caicos Islands is not a popularity contest; it is far more im-portant than that. It is designed to support the rule of law and the good governance of the Territory, regard-less of political offi ce or wealth.

“In light of this, it seems only rea-sonable to ask, that the Premier and his Ministers continue to work with me for the greater good of the peo-ple of this country, even if they do not much like me personally. What they think of me as a person is not at issue.

“As the appointed Attorney Gen-eral to the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands, I commit to working in their interests for the next three years.”

This statement, among others may very well be the subject of the million-dollar court action, which has not yet been offi cially fi led in court.

FORMER AG WANTSFORMER AG WANTS$1MILLION FROM TCIG$1MILLION FROM TCIG

Ministry of Education Partners with UNICEF to Develop TCI Education Strategy

The Ministry of Education has partnered with UNICEF to re-

view of the Turks and Caicos Is-lands’ Five Year Education Devel-opment Plan and to develop an Implementation Plan. UNICEF is providing technical support in the person of Mr. Geoffrey Thompson. He arrived in Turks and Caicos on Sunday 20th Octo-ber, 2013.

The development of the Five year Education Plan is in line with the Turks and Caicos Islands’ Government prioritisation of the Education sector and the need to develop a clear fi ve year strat-egy/implementation plan aimed at the review and development of the sector.

The Five Year Education Plan, in conjunction with the recent report on the National Consultation on Education, is aimed at improving the output from the sector over a specific period. The report and the plan will be used to develop a strategic plan complete with budget as well a logical and a performance assessment framework that will provide the Minister and the Ministry with a pathway towards the continuous development of the sector.

Mr. Thompson is scheduled to work with a locally convened committee to develop a realistic

strategic plan for the Education Sector for the period 2014 - 2017. The Strategic Plan is being designed to articulate deliberate clear strategies for the development of key agreed areas and reflect the recommendations and concerns reflected in the report on the National Consultation on Education and the Education Development Plan.

Clear sectoral targets and prog-ress indicators will also be elab-orated to better monitor the per-formance of the education sector. These will be aligned with region-al and international benchmarks. Mr. Thompson will also address crosscutting issues such as gen-der, poverty and disability and the implications for the overall devel-opment of TCI.

Page 3NOVEMBER 11TH - NOVEMBER 16TH, 2013TURKS & CAICOS SUN




LOCAL NEWS

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LOCAL NEWSChief Justice Edwin Goldsbrough resigns

BY HAYDEN BOYCEPUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos Islands Ed-win Goldsbrough will be leaving his post in

March next year, The SUN can confi rm.Reliable sources confi rmed that Goldsbrough

has written to Governor Peter Beckingham giving him six months notice to allow for succession plan-ning.

There have reports that the two other senior court offi cials (not judges) also will be resigning shortly, but this could not be confi rmed up to Press time.

The SUN understands that Goldsbrough will be taking up a more prestigious and better paying job. He is one of three full-time judges on the Turks and Caicos Islands Bench; the other two being Madame Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale, a former Chief Magis-trate of the Cayman Islands who has acted as Chief Justice whenever Goldsbrough is away from the country, and Madame Justice Joan Joyner, a former Chief Magistrate of the TCI.

Regarded in legal circles as quiet, fair and excep-tionally sharp, Goldsbrough is leaving a job that pays US$120,000 per year, plus US$30,000 a year in living expenses.

An article which appeared in the Solomon Is-lands Island SUN newspaper in April 2013 said that country’s Chief Justice Sir Albert Palmer CBE has an-nounced the appointment of the Honourable Jus-tice Edwin Goldsbrough as the new President of the Court of Appeal for the Solomon Islands.

Justice Goldsbrough, a former High Court Judge in the Solomon Islands, and former Acting Presi-

dent of the Court of Appeal of the Solomon Islands, was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in July 1980 after studying at the College of Law, Guildford and latterly Chester in the United Kingdom.

He was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court in the Republic of Vanuatu in 1988, where he act-ed as a judge of the Senior Magistrates’ Court and the Supreme Court. In addition he took on the du-ties as Acting Chief Justice of Vanuatu as required. It was during his time in Vanuatu he was appoint-ed as a Judge of Solomon Islands Court of Appeal in July 1991.

Justice Goldsbrough in 1993 was appointed as Training Offi cer and Senior Crown Counsel in St Helena, South Atlantic devising and delivering train-ing to Lay Magistrates.

His work in St Helena also involved training staff and professional development of Magistrates’ and High Court clerks and the Public Prosecutor. He dep-utized for the Attorney General in his absence and advised and trained Lay Advocates in the role as public defenders.

In 1995 Justice Goldsbrough was appointed to the post of Legal Training Offi cer at the Judicial Col-lege of Zimbabwe where he worked in the fi eld of ensuring Zimbabwean staff of the Judicial College acquired the requisite skills and knowledge to con-tinue the work after donor support ended.

He was involved in conducting research for the development of training material for the Judicial College and for the High Court and Supreme Court with respect to pending cases. He delivered induc-tion training for newly appointed Judicial Offi cers and assisted with their mentoring.

Justice Goldsbrough was appointed as a Judge of the High Court of the Solomon Islands in April 2006 where in his fi ve plus years on the Solomon Is-lands bench he presided over cases in both the civ-il and criminal jurisdictions and sat when required as a Judge of the Court of Appeal, until his departure in July 2011.

Justice Edwin Goldsbrough is currently the Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos and will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the Court of Appeal bench in the Solomon Islands.

The article said: “The National Judiciary looks forward to welcoming back the Judge and working again with him as the new President. The Governor General will formally swear in Justice Goldsbrough on his next visit to the Solomon Islands. The next scheduled sitting of the Court of Appeal, Solomon Islands will commence Monday 15th April 2013.”

Drexwell Seymour Opens Accounting FirmDrexwell Seymour of TCI Financial

Solutions (incorporated in Febru-ary 2013), Turks and Caicos, and Philip Galanis of HLB Galanis & Co. (founded in January 1998) Bahamas are pleased to announce the opening of the fi rm HLB (TCI) Ltd, located at Regent Village, Grace Bay Providenciales, Turks & Cai-cos Islands.

HLB Galanis & Co is a member of HLB International, the tenth largest worldwide network of dynamic inde-pendent professional accounting fi rms and business advisors. HLB Internation-al (HLBI) is a member of the Forum of Firms. Our global network is comprised of member fi rms in over 100 countries, which collectively have more than 1,900 partners and 14,500 staff in over 500 offi ces.

The new company said its motto:

Local in Touch, Global in Reach, indica-tive of the Firm’s capabilities as it deliv-ers excellent service to local businesses, while simultaneously, having the re-sources to extend services internation-ally for those same local clients.

Mr. Seymour is the former CEO of Cable & Wireless (TCI) Ltd for seven years and also served as the former fi -

nancial controller for seven years. He is a Certifi ed Public Accountant, becom-ing the second Turks and Caicos Islands resident to attain that distinction.

Mr. Seymour is currently serving for the second term as the President of the TCI Society of Professional Accoun-tants. He has more than twenty-two years of work experience, having also worked at Price Waterhouse Coopers, KPMG, Turks and Caicos and KPMG Canada.

Mr. Galanis is the former Manag-ing Partner of Ernst & Young Nassau, Bahamas and now serves as the Man-aging Partner of HLB Galanis & Co. He is a Certifi ed Public Accountant. (CPA), as well as a Chartered Accountant (CA) and a Certifi ed Valuation Analyst (CVA). He has served as President of The Baha-mas Institute of Chartered Accountants

from 1988 to 1992 and as President of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean from 1995 to 1997.

Mr. Galanis has more than 33 years’ experience in serving audit and con-sulting clients across a wide range of industries.

Both Mr. Seymour and Mr. Galanis are very excited about this new ven-ture in TCI and look forward to serv-ing clients locally in TCI. Ironically HLB stands for “Helping Local Business”

HLB TCI will provide the follow-ing services: Accounting, Audit & Assur-ance, Business Valuation, Consulting Services, Corporate Finance, Corporate restructuring including receiverships and liquidations, Forensic Accounting and outsourcing.

For more information, please con-tact Drexwell Seymour at [email protected] or at 941 6422 or 941 4358 or 231 6373

GOVERNOR BECKINGHAM MUST PROVIDE HOPE, SAYS BUSINESSMAN ALLAN HUTCHINSON

BY VIVIAN TYSON

The Providenciales Chamber of Com-merce said that that it is anticipat-

ing nothing less than a fruitful working relationship with His Excellency Gov-ernor Peter Beckingham, so as to bring back prosperity to the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Allan Hutchinson, a director of the Chamber, speaking at the welcome re-ception for Governor Beckingham at Beaches’ Key West Village on October 21, reminded him of the anticipation that he brings to the country at this time.

“Governor Beckingham is our 13th governor, and he has become the gov-ernor at one of the most crucial and challenging time in our history. There is much anticipation and hope that you and your offi ce will bring about a new climate of true cooperation by engaging the business community in a meaning-ful and committed manner, embraced

by mutual respect for the role of each stakeholder,” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson said that the Chamber is looking for a show a empathy and respect from Governor Beckingham, which he hinted was lacking on the path of his predecessor, Ric Todd.

“We just want to remind you, His Excellency that these islands do have some unique challenges, which affect the way businesses are conducted and are aggravated by a small prominent population that requires the adminis-tering powers to show empathy, con-

cern and respect for the goal and aspira-tions of the inhabitants,” he said.

Hutchinson said that based on Beck-ingham’s background and his inaugural speech in the House of Assembly, many in the business community believes that he is right at this time to take on the role of governor of the TCI.

“Your resume tells us that you are the man for the job. We therefore wel-come the tone of your inaugural speech and the speech you gave here tonight. And we are willing and able to engage TCIG and your offi ce to create and im-prove the business environment so that businesses may prosper and inward in-vestments returned to these islands for the benefi t of all concerned.

“The board of directors, members of the Providenciales Chamber of Com-merce sincerely wish you well in your new role and pledge our support as long as you are in offi ce, provides the leadership that these islands so desper-ately deserve,” Hutchinson stated.

In the meantime, Hutchinson re-

minded Governor Beckingham that tax-ation was a no-no for the Turks and Cai-cos Islands at this time. Todd, during his tenure, pushed for the implementation of Value Added Tax, which the majority of the country repelled.

Hutchinson therefore implored Governor Todd to focus his attention on inward investment and trade and incentives to businesses so that they would be able to fl ourish.

“As a longstanding businessman in this community, I want to say, His Ex-cellency, taxation is not the answer. In-ward investment, trade, incentives and relief for businesses must be the cen-tre and focus of any government. With-out those elements we are not going to see the economic climate that we so longed for.

“We look forward to a fruitful and productive working relationship with you, so that at the end of your tenure, we will be asking you to extend your time and not ask you to leave quickly,” Hutchinson said.

Chief Justice Edwin Goldsbrough (right) at the swearing-in ceremony for High Court judges Madame Justices

Margaret Ramsay-Hale (second from right) and Joan Joyner (third from right). At left is former Governor Ric Todd.

Drexwell Seymour

Businessman Allan Hutchinson


LOCAL NEWSDIFID could consider extending 2016 loan

guarantee if TCI has strong financial backingBY VIVIAN TYSON

If Government makes a fi nan-cially-sound proposal, the De-

partment for International Development (DFID) could recon-sider extending the UK Govern-ment backed loan which TCIG is bound to pay-off by 2016, His Excel-lency Governor Peter Beckingham said.

The governor was addressing the Providenciales Chamber of Com-merce’s monthly meeting on Mon-day (November 4), at Beaches Resort and Spa, where he made the reve-lation.

Addressing a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce at Beach-es Resort and Spa on Monday, No-vember 4th, Beckingham said that based on his conversations with UK Minister Alan Duncan, he believes the Department for Internation-al Development would consider re-laxing the terms and conditions of the loan, which is widely felt to be causing fi nancial and economic hardship to the people of Turks and Caicos Islands.

In 2011 the UK extended essen-tial help to the TCI by providing a 260 million dollar loan guarantee to keep local government function-ing.

The guarantee expires in the year 2016, but most of the money generated by the Turks and Caicos Islands Government between now and then, will have to go towards repaying that loan.

During the Chamber of Com-merce meeting, private banker Keith Burant asked the Governor about the loan and its tight sched-ule, and the Governor said there would be nothing to stop the TCIG from going to the UK with a sensi-ble proposal.

“I think the only thing I would add to that is obviously where the TCI Government to go to DIFID with a serious proposal which had been underwritten by commer-cial banks or others. I am sure they would look at it. But at the moment their position is clear in the eyes of Allan Duncan,” Beckingham said.

The governor said that while he believes that TCI stands a good chance of a loan extension should it take the proposed approach; there are some who believe that it would be diffi cult for TCI to obtain a solid fi nancial underwriting since it is not attractive to any fi nancial institution at this time.

“There will be nothing to stop

the TCI Government going to DIFID with a proposal. I had a meeting with the Financial Industries Asso-ciation, and last week I met one of the senior bankers in TCI, who were talking along the line you have men-tioned. Some of them, I have to say, gave me one message that it would be quite possible to put a new set of proposals, which could change the dynamics. Others said to me that no banks would be interested, as it were, coming to the aid of the TCI before 2016,” Governor Beckingham revealed.

Governor Beckingham added: “I don’t know, but I said to the Finan-cial Industries Association that I would be very interested in follow-ing up that discussion. It is clearly going to be in a discussion with fi -nancial experts if there was to be a serious proposition to DIFID. But they will be perfectly willing to talk about something along those lines if it was a sustainable proposition.”

In the meantime, Beckingham

told the audience that Foreign Min-ister Williams Hague expressed the importance of TCI becoming a di-versifi ed economy based on the fi ckleness of the tourism industry.

“Everyone knows that the econ-omy here is heavily dependent on tourism. And the last few years have shown that it can be very vulnera-ble due to a downturn in the Amer-ican economy. So manufacturing is very important. I have had some discussions with businesses here who were talking about getting into manufacturing.

“As a complete new comer, it seems to me that obviously there are quite a number of obstacles, and I would be prepared to talk to you separately about what you are doing because the obstacles clear-ly include the high energy costs and the high labour costs. So I would be very interested to know how you can compete,” he told the chamber members.

He said that Premier Hon. Dr. Ru-fus Ewing is also on the same page and also express the desire to ex-pand the TCI economy.

“The premier has talked to me about it, it is important to stimulate a small manufacturing base here, but it has to be a realistic one. But I am absolutely sure that this econ-omy needs diversifi cation,” he said.

He said that investors with whom he had a meeting last week, said that they would like to see the establishment of agriculture and in fi sheries.

Governor Peter BeckinghamAccountant Keith Burant


TCI 2nd Annual Captive Insurance Conference to address industry key issues The Turks and Caicos Association

of Insurance Managers (TCAIM) will once again welcome more than a hundred international and local-ly based delegates for its 2nd Annual Captive Insurance Conference in Prov-idenciales on November 15th 2013 at the Regent Palms.

During this year’s Conference, In-dustry Professionals and Specialists

as well as members of the fi nancial services industry will share informa-tion and discuss topics such as fi nan-cial regulatory and taxation aspects of Captive planning, and the utilisation of Turks and Caicos as a perfect domi-cile for Captive Insurance.

Speaking about the event, TCAIM President Adrian Corr stressed that this Annual Conference was de-

signed to educate business owners and their advisors on all aspects re-lated to structuring, implementing and operating captive insurance pro-grams.

“This forum is also a perfect oppor-tunity for all members of the fi nancial industry in the region and beyond to know or be reminded that our juris-diction is indeed an International Fi-nancial Centre which has been open for business for the past twenty plus years,” he continued.

Insurance professionals are expect-ed to take the opportunity to network and to put questions forward to the TCI regulatory authority, as the Finan-cial Services Commission (FSC) is to take part in the presentations offered on the day.

Confi rming FSC support, Man-aging Director Kevin Higgins stat-

ed: “The Financial Services Commis-sion is pleased to see that the Turks and Caicos Association of Insurance Managers took the initiative to orga-nise and bring the 2nd Annual Cap-tive Insurance Conference to the TCI. This event is building on the momen-tum of the previous year, addressing key issues related to the Captive mar-ket”

He further added: “ The Commis-sion will continue to support the In-dustry in their efforts to showcase a well regulated jurisdiction which has a wide range of services to offer.”

The 2nd Annual Captive Insurance Conference is open to Professionals from the Insurance industry and other related fi nancial services. Registration is open until 13th November, 2013. Me-dia queries should be directed to Mrs. Laura Miller on [email protected]

LOCAL NEWSFive Haitians escape from Detention Centre Approximately fi ve Haitian detainees that were

being housed at the Detention Centre in South Dock, Providenciales escaped from that facility ear-ly Monday morning (November 4), undetected by security there.

Sources said that what made the break out so bizarre was the fact that the escapees’ feet, pri-or to the bust out, were chained, hands cuffed and were held inside of all places the security office.

But somehow they managed to pick the locks to the instruments that bound them. From there they unlocked the building doors undetected by the usually heavy security presence at the facility before making their way to freedom.

The escapees, this newspaper understands, were among a group of Haitian Migrants who ar-

rived in the Turks and Caicos Islands via boat last week on one of the two sloops that were intercept-ed in our waters by marine police personnel. The majority of those who arrived were returned to their homeland, leaving fewer than ten at the facil-ity, our source said.

Our sources said that of all the escapes that had been staged in recent time at the Detention Centre, Monday’s escape was the most meticulous, since the getaway, The SUN understands, was detected only after the detainers were gone.

This brings to three the number of such escapes from the Detention Centre in recent time. The fi rst took place on April 8, this year when 30 detainees comprising men and women violently broke from their holding areas, injuring a number of female se-curity personnel in the process.

The group was among 100 illegal Haitian mi-grants whose boat was intercepted off the coast of Providenciales.

In addition to trampling upon three female se-curity guards, some of the escaping detainees used pieces of lumber to beat them. The break-out took place hours after they were taken of the sloop and brought to the centre.

The second escape took place on April 24, and involved three inmates. Our source said that one of the escapees, who included women, used the fe-male section of the building as their escape route, kicking over and trampling the helpless female se-curity guards, before scaling the razor wired chain-link fence freedom.

At press time, it was unclear as to whether or not any of the escapees were recaptured.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX IS HERE AGAIN

BY VIVIAN TYSON

The 2013 edition of the annual What’s in the Box contest, which

is put on by business enterprises Grace Bay Resorts, telecoms compa-ny LIME, CIBC First Caribbean Inter-national Bank and the Do It Centre, was launched last Friday (October 25) at the First Caribbean Round-about.

Dr. Carlton Mills, Committee Member of What’s in the Box, ex-plained that by virtue of the over-whelming responses from LIME cus-tomers over the last three years, they decided to open the contest much earlier this year to give others a lon-ger time to participate.

“Last year was about 4,000 re-sponses. We did it earlier this year be-cause, one, we want to generate more interest. Two, the main thing really being we want to raise $5,000 this year. We want to give people more time, so that they will have more op-portunities, to text in as many times as possible,” Dr. Mills said.

He said that the funds raised from the event would go towards the fi ve that Grace Bay Resorts has adopted.

“As you know, we have adopted fi ve schools – one here in Provo, two in North Caicos and Two in South Caicos. So, the funds are going to be

distributed among those schools, to assist them to purchase school sup-plies,” Mills said.

In the meantime, Rachel Harvey, LIME’s Head of Public Relations said: “Customers can participate in the Whats in the Box promotion by tex-ting ‘box’ plus their choice for the answer to 4946. For example, if you think the answer is a shell, you text ‘box shell’, and you send it to 4946,

and it would be entered into the draw. “When the selection is made it is

totally randomly selected. It is com-puter-generated. We look at all the responses that have come in, and the draw is done by the computer. And as soon as that information is learned, we share it and we congrat-ulate the winners.”

The fi rst prize is a round trip tick-et for two to New York plus hotel ac-commodation and an ipad; the sec-ond prize is a night for two at West Bay Club; the third prize is a $500 account at CIBC FirstCaribbean In-ternational Bank; fourth prize is a phone from LIME; while the fi fth place prize will come from the Do It Centre.

Clues, according t Mills, would be released every week leading up to the drawing. Drawing for the What’s in the Box promotion is scheduled for December 24 – Christmas Eve.

Dr. Carlton Mills (right); Alanso Higgs (second right); Rachel Harvey (centre), along with representatives from the Do It Centre participate in the launch of the What’s In the Box.


LOCAL NEWS

Chamber President Jay Saunders apologises for being too hard on Governor

BY VIVIAN TYSON

President of the Providenciales Cham-ber of Commerce E. Jay Saunders has

publicly apologize to new Governor His Excellency Peter Beckingham for “being too hard on him during a welcome re-ception at Beaches’ Key west Village in October.

Saunders, who was speaking at the weekly meeting of the Chamber of Commerce on Monday, November 4, at Beaches Resort and Spa, said that the economy is in a bad state and needs an ally to take it from the doldrums.

And based on the toxic relationship between the business sector and for-mer Governor Ric Todd, he was forced to be as candid as possible with Governor Beckingham. But felt bad after interac-tion with him.

“I felt a little bit bad that I went hard at him at his welcome party, and I apol-ogize because it is very rear when you fi nd this very nice governor, who you want to treat very well but because the economy is doing very badly, you want to hammer home that the economy is doing very badly. And you are trying to tell him in a good way that you need his help, and we need his help to work with the elected government to get the econ-omy kick-started again,” Saunders said.

He added: “Governor I apologize. It is not golf and it is tennis, it is essentially my job to say that things are not going well in the economy and we need your help. The business community is more than happy and will to give you the hand of partnership, but it is true part-nership. It is a partnership that all three parties – the business sector, the elected government, need to work together on, because we all need each other.”

Saunders said that after his fi rst in-teraction with Governor Beckingham made him realize that he was different from a number of his predecessor be-

cause he shows great humility. He said that the impression he has of Governor Beckingham is that he makes those who he interacts with feel important as op-posed to some of his predecessors.

“The governor was so humble when I fi rst met him. Normally when gover-nors come and they have their big hat on; they got their car and they got their security detail and everything. And by

that you know they are someone important that you are dealing with be-cause they are wearing it on their shoulder.

“But when you met someone who is not wear-ing it on their shoulder tells you something about that person. It tells you that the position and the power and everything are not important to them; what is important is serv-

ing,” he said.In the meantime, Saunders said that

from his interaction with government, he knows that they are trying to get the economy in order, but needs the assis-tance of the United Kingdom Govern-ment to back them up in a tangible way.

“I sit on some of these committees and I know that the government is try-ing really hard to come up with reve-nue measures to meet the commitments that the British require, particularly for the loan guarantee. And everything that they do to try and meet these commit-ments, hurts the country in the short term, and everyone knows that the an-swer is not in more taxes.

“And we just hope that someone in the FCO and DFID and back in the UK understands that more taxes in the short term aren’t going to help the economy. We have been nice about it, because we are easy-going people. But someone needs to get up and say it is not work-ing,” Sunders said.

Saunders told Governor Beckingham that he is calling on him to take the mes-sage of no new taxes back to the United Kingdom.

Many children in Turks and Caicos Islands go without food daily

BY VIVIAN TYSON

A number of school-age children go without food on a regular basis and their hunger is beginning to refl ect in their school work, according to Colo-nel Raphael Mason of the Salvation Army.

Addressing the Providenciales Chamber of Commerce on Monday (November 4), Colonel Mason said that many of those children, because of their parents lacking ability to pro-vide for them in a meaningful way, are only fed a speck food in the morning, which he said serve them until the next morning, since many times they go to bed without dinner.

“We are very concerned about our school-age children. Many of them right now, at this moment, as I am speaking - and I am not exaggerating - would have gotten out of bed this morning, they probably would have had some chips and some juice and that is probably their nutrition for the whole day. Many of them are home with nothing to eat for dinner,” Colo-nel Mason said

Colonel Mason revealed also that he has taken notice of group of young people, who have become angry against the system, which they com-plained is failing them. He urged the authorities to address such situation before is it gets worse.

“We are beginning to develop a group of young people who are angry and who are getting more and more angry as the days go by. Many of them

were born here, they know no other country and yet they do not have the enabling.

“They lack education, they lack the basic amenities of life, and they don’t know where to turn. And I be-lieve that if we do not do something about it, then it is not only going to tarnish but destroy the beauty that we boast about in this land,” Colonel Ma-son warned.

Colonel Mason pointed out that al-though the Salvation Army has a feed-ing programme at the Clement Howell High School, where a number of these hungering children attend, the enti-ty’s efforts has stretched thin, since it is fi nding it diffi cult to raise the level of resources needed to tackle the hun-ger among the children.

“We help to provide lunches for so

many children. We have a very small lunch programme at Clement Howell, where we try to pay for the lunch for some almost 30 children per day. Un-fortunately we are not able these days (to satisfactorily maintain the pro-gramme) because of lack of resources to keep this up on a regular basis as we want to.

“There are so many of the horror stories you hear; children fainting, children just not able to function in school. Report cards refl ect poor per-formance, not because of children without ability but because of chil-dren with empty stomachs. I think those who sell patties are tired of see-ing me in their patty shops because we buy patties from them on a regular basis,” he said.

He said also that the Salvation Army provides some school children with transportation money since their parents, for the most part, are unable to afford it.

“Many of them (children) are not able to get to school so we provide jit-ney fares for them. Many of them this last month or so – the beginning of the new school year – we have been

able to buy several hundred of dollars worth of school books and school sup-plies for these children,” he said.

Mason said that the Salvation Army has also teamed up with an unnamed supermarket to create a voucher food programme for needy families, work-ing through the Social Service Depart-ment, which he said makes the recom-mendations.

“They are not allowed to buy liquor or tobacco, but to meet the needs of their homes. We also seek to help fam-ilies with utility bills,” he explained.

Mason also reminded the audience of the transportation programme on Middle Caicos for seniors, which is provided twice per week to allow them to go to the doctor and conduct other personal businesses.

“We believe that what we preach on Sunday, we need to do it for all the other days in the week, and that’s why we do the things that we do. We be-lieve that when you talk about loving God it’s not something you do from the pulpit, it is something you when you get your hands dirty, to help some-one. And that’s why we do the things that we do.”

Colonel Raphael Mason

E. Jay Saunders


LOCAL NEWS

Anglican Bishop says TCI government has authority but no powers

BY VIVIAN TYSON

Turks and Caicos Cabinet Minis-ters, including Premier Hon. Dr.

Rufus Ewing, has authority and no powers, which is major weakness and lack of foresight on the part of those who assembled the Constitu-tion, this is the opinion of Anglican Bishop for the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands Diocese, Laish Boyd.

Speaking at the opening of the 112th Synod at the Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral in Nassau, Baha-mas on October 21, Bishop Boyd, in a wide-ranging topical speech, be-moaned the lack of power that should have been given to the local-ly elected government through elec-toral process.

Bishop Boyd questioned wheth-er or not the constitutional hurdles faced by government ministers are really oversight on the part of the Constitution writer or just plainly by design.

“We sympathize with the new leadership because the new Consti-tution gives inordinate power to the Permanent Secretaries in govern-ment ministries who report directly to the Deputy Governor/Governor’s Offi ce.

“This means that cabinet minis-ters literally have authority and no power. This is a weakness and a lack of foresight on the part of the new constitution, or maybe it was by de-

sign. However, it does create a vexing impediment for the current leaders, and we sympathize,” he said.

Turning to the Turks and Caicos Islands National Health Insurance Plan (NHIP), Bishop Boyd said that while it is a good thing, is lacking in so many ways and needs further fi x-ing, including the lessening of over-seas travel for patients and instead equip the two hospitals enough to scale back overseas referrals.

“The Turks and Caicos Islands has had a National Health Insurance Plan (NHIP) in place for a number of years. It is s good thing that has done a lot of good. It does have its limits in that some persons who need pre-ventative care cannot get it in a time-ly or simple fashion.

“Citizens are also concerned about the fact that patients have to

do a lot of travelling, i.e., from Grand Turk to get medical services in Pro-vo, or even to travel to The Bahamas, Cuba, The Dominican Republic or the USA for medical services. Some of this is unavoidable.

“However, with the amount that has been spent on the two new hos-pitals in Grand Turks and Providen-ciales, we encourage the government to continue to work hard toward the providing of all the basic medical ser-vices-preventative and intervention-al,” he urged.

On the matter of the economy, Bishop Boyd has urged government to pull out all the stops to secure em-ployment for its unemployment citi-zens, so as to ease the joblessness in the country.

“Unemployment remains a bit-ing concern in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The country is still feeling the effects of the redundancy exer-cises of a few years ago where many skilled civil servants were allowed to leave the service. The private sec-tor there is relatively small and fairly limited and so there has been no real increased availability of jobs general-ly. So concern is great. We encourage the government to continue to seek foreign and local investment and to do whatever else it can to stimulate the economy. We are delighted that this is an area that the new governor (His Excellency Peter Beckingham) has already stated,” Bishop Boyd said.

However, the clergy head stat-ed that the situation of persons not

wanting to work but still expect pay is a troubling situation and should be tackled since it has become a con-cern for both local and expatriate employers.

“There are many Bahamians and Turks and Caicos Islanders who work hard. However, there are too many who do not have a good work ethic at all: many want a job but do not want to work. Local and foreign business-owners have commented on this. If we are not careful we will make it too expensive for business owners to run businesses and we will eventually lose employing enti-ties.

“Those who complain about the availability of jobs need to be careful how they conduct themselves when they get one lest they destroy the reputation of our two countries. In this increasingly global environment workers must take their jobs serious-ly since they are not just compet-ing with workers at home but with workers all over the world,” he said.

In the meantime, Bishop Boyd has commended then TCI for its dil-igence in fi ghting crime, which has seen tremendous results in recent time.

“The crime picture in The Turks and Caicos Islands is less complicat-ed than here in The Bahamas. Hap-pily they are experiencing less crime in recent times than they had been. I commend the government, the po-lice and the citizens for these im-provements,” Bishop Boyd said.

Bishop Laish Boyd


LOCAL NEWSCarnival Cruise Lines could

scale back berths in TCIBY VIVIAN TYSON

Carnival Cruise has hinted that it may scale back calls to the Grand

Turk Cruise Center after construction of a new port in neighboring Domin-ican Republic, even though His Ex-cellency Governor Peter Beckingham believed that the company execu-tives’ comment was a bit lightheart-ed.

Governor Beckingham made the revelation while addressing the Prov-idenciales Chamber of Commerce on Monday (November 4) at Beaches Re-sort and Spa. He said that the meet-ing with Carnival executives took place before he came to the TCI.

“They pointed out to me last week, that they are building a new port in the Dominican Republic, and they pointed out, I suspect slightly tongue in cheek, that they could move much of their current arrivals from Grand Turk to the Dominican Republic. That, of course, would be bad news for the citizens of Grand Turk, who engage in the economy of servicing one million arrivals, next year, into Grand Turk,” the governor said.

Governor Beckingham pointed out also that during the discussions the cruise line executives had put some concerns forward, which he said he has discussed with cabinet for a resolution.

“I had a very instructive and use-ful discussion, fi rstly with him (Carni-val executive), and then with some of his executives about the importance of TCI to Carnival. And without going into any details, which are neither appropriate nor particularly interest-ing, it became clear from these dis-cussions that Carnival is looking for some movements on various issues.

“I am now talking to the cabinet and particular ministers, and we can begin to edge forward and to devel-op the concerns that Carnival has,” he said.

In the meantime, Governor Beck-ingham said that he was commend-ed by the Carnival principals for be-

ing the fi rst ever governor of any of the Overseas Territories to engage that company in such a fashion.

“I was particularly pleased when I went in to see Carnival, because they, in turn, had a meeting with minis-ters in London last week, and he said that I was the fi rst governor in any of these territories to take the travel to go see them in Miami before coming out,” he said.

Governor Beckingham stated that also stated that Premier Rufus Ewing, who is scheduled to visit the UK lat-er this month to have meeting other Overseas Territories heads, will also get the opportunity to meet with in-vestors.

“The reason we are going is to at-tend a forum to be mainly focused on prosperity and the economy, and increasing jobs in the territo-ries. There will be other matters on the discussion. But the prime focus of those three days of meetings will be trade and investment. And on the last day your country together with the other territories will be present-ing itself as it were, to British com-panies who may have interest in in-vesting here,” Governor Beckingham said.

Meanwhile, Governor Becking-ham has advised that the TCI should contemplate setting up offi ces in in-dustrialized countries so as to build its brand.

“The Turks and Caicos Islands could consider in the future open-ing business in industrialized coun-tries such as Hong Kong. The territo-ry needs to consider in due course, maybe not Hong Kong, maybe some-where else. But that sort of expan-sion approach is probably the name of the game as we move forward,” he said.

He said that over the last half a decade, the Foreign and Common-wealth Offi ce has been focusing on the prosperity of its Overseas Territo-ries, and so he urged the local politi-cal directorate and business interests to lobby UK Ministers for more focus on the TCI.


LOCAL NEWS

Governor Beckingham tours Kew Town with Hon. Amanda Misick

BY VIVIAN TYSON

Some residents of Kew Town in Providenciales had a pleasant surprise on Wednesday (Novem-

ber 6) when their Member of Parliament and Min-ister for Home Affairs and Public Safety Hon. Aman-da Missick, along with new governor His Excellency Peter Beckingham, toured that community.

The tour, according to Minister Missick, is geared to give Governor Beckingham fi rsthand knowledge of the needs of the constituency and also the living condition of individual constituents, thereby allow-ing him the opportunity to assess the situation for himself, and when the time comes, puts him in the best position to lobby the United Kingdom Govern-ment on how to address those needs.

“Basically, it is to allow the governor to see our constituency and what our constituents are all about. (And by his presence) it makes me to believe that he really cares, he is concerned, he shows inter-est, by doing this. He accepted the invitation will-ingly, and I appreciate that. Going forward, when we put stuff before him regarding the constituency, about what I want to see happen, I would have his support,” Minister Missick said.

She told the media that many of the residents, during the tour, remarked that they need a recre-ational facility, which was among her campaign platform leading up to the November 12, 2012 gen-eral election.

“That (recreational facility) is one of the key things that I campaigned on. Also a daycare centre for single mothers, and I need to get that part going along with a basketball court and all of that. Those are my main focus along with unemployment of course,” she said.

For his part, Governor Beckingham said that he has seen both positives and negatives of the com-munity. And while he has been moved by the spirit of the constituents, pointed out that there are prob-

lems that need addressing urgently.“We just want to get an idea of what is going on

in the constituency, where the minister is the repre-sentative. We have seen people, who got jobs, be it not the best jobs but they are working, one of them, I think his name is Don-Hue, who is quite a charac-ter. He does food grilling in a small restaurant. Some of his friends obviously got small jobs but they were smoking.

“We also went to another part of the constituen-cy, where sadly, I think it is fair to say probably the guys we met haven’t got work, and clearly weren’t in the best position at all. They had problems. They have, in some cases, children, and it was hard for them,” he said.

The governor and Minister Misick, along with

the governor’s wife Jill, also toured the Marion Wil-liams Special Needs Association of Providenciales (SNAP) Centre. Mrs. Beckingham is a special needs teacher, and was elated to interact with the students and teachers at the facility. The governor said that he was happy to have visited the facility to see the fabulous work taking place there.

“It is beautifully decorated, and it’s a school for children with special needs. It is very touching to see them. My wife is a teacher of special needs, and I think clearly she is impressed by what she saw. So we have seen a real diversity in Kew Town, and I am very grateful to the minister for giving up her time. Because it is the only way I can understand what the problems are of this country and refl ect them to people in London,” the Governor said.

Kew Town resident Don-Hue Bassett (left) welcomes Governor Peter Beckingham (second right) and his wife Jill (right), to the community on Wednesday (October 6), while Member of Parliament Hon. Amanda Missick

(second left) looks on. Share in the moment in the background are other members of the community.


BEACHES AND EDUCATION MINISTRY CONDUCTING

YOUTH APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMME

The Ministry of Education, Youth, Sports, Culture

and Library Services has ne-gotiated with Beaches Resort to conduct a Youth Appren-ticeship Program aimed at 2012-2013 High School grad-uates for departmental rota-tion on the resort.

Interested graduates must be willing to start classes commencing the 1st week of December 2013 with Beaches Resort. The duration of study for the Apprenticeship Program is one year. Students will re-ceive a stipend on a biweek-ly basis, to assist with their upkeep.

All interested graduates from across the islands and who meet the criteria out-lined are invited to apply.

ELIGIBILITYApprenticeship may be

awarded to persons who sat-isfy the following criteria:-

Have completed Second-ary Education at any of the High Schools in 2012 or 2013.

Currently NOT attending the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College or an A-level program.

Must be willing to com-ply with the policies and procedures including stan-dards of appearance of the

company.Applications forms will

be available from the Min-istry of Education on Grand Turk, The Education De-partment and Youth Depart-ments on Providenciales, The Labour Department and District Commissioners’ Of-fi ces throughout the islands.

All applications along with High School leaving Certifi cates should be for-warded to the Ministry of Education, Grand Turk on or before November 15th 2013.

Please note that success-ful applicants will be respon-sible for their living arrange-ments during the year.

LIME SLASHES USA ROAMING RATES

LIME, has announced plans to dramatical-ly cut data roaming costs for customers

traveling to the USA, new rates will be as low as just $4.99 per MB.

Lacal Palmer, Acting GM of LIME Turks & Caicos Islands said “Customers have been telling me that they need better pricing for roaming to the US so from November 1, we introduce our new data roaming rate which will bring the price down signifi cantly and enable customers to roam without breaking the bank. The new rate provides incredible

value and signifi cant savings. Palmer con-tinued “Now, customers who travel can use all the services they need but without the worry of incurring unexpected fees.”

LIME’s lowered data roaming rate is de-signed to encourage customers to turn on their smartphones when they travel, instead of leav-ing them at home for fear of large roaming bills.

The message is clear LIME is determined to distinguish itself from competitors by of-fering customers the very latest technology and the absolute best value.

Professional accountants hold second annual general meeting

The Turks & Caicos Islands Society of Professional Ac-

countants Inc. (TCISPA) held its second Annual General Meeting (AGM) on October 28, 2013 at the Shay Café, Le Vele Plaza, Grace Bay, Provi-denciales. In attendance were over 42 persons, comprising of Qualifi ed Accountants and Accounting Students.

TCISPA, a non-profi t reg-istered entity, has been es-tablished to develop and promote community aware-ness of the accounting pro-fession in the Turks and Cai-cos Islands and set guidelines and policies that aim to gov-ern, discipline and regulate the professional conduct of its members. The society is rapidly growing with current membership of over 50 pro-fessional and student mem-bers.

Drexwell Seymour, Pres-ident of the Society stated, “We are really adamant about the success of our qualifi ed and student members, one

of our main goals is to edu-cate and support our student members as they complete their professional qualifi ca-tions and provide continuous training and development to our qualifi ed members. All students and accounting pro-fessionals are encouraged to extend their professional net-work and be a part of this prestigious society”

At the AGM, Nick Hay-wood -Assurance Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Executive Member of the TCISPA, discussed the TCIS-PA’s progress over the past 12 months, stating that the TCISPA was successful in reg-istering the organization as a non-profi t organization with the Financial Services Com-mission (FSC), and is further working with the FSC to de-velop guidelines for registra-tion of auditors for banks, trust, and money transmit-ters operating within the TCI. Mr. Haywood further stat-ed that the Executive Com-

mittee has been in prelim-inary discussions with the TCI Community College for development and support to its students and teachers. A ‘study buddy’ program is cur-rently being put in place to motivate and assist member students studying in all areas of accounting and fi nance.

Elections of the Council were also held at the Meet-ing, and the following Ex-ecutive Members were duly re-elected:

Drexwell Seymour, CPA (President)Desiree James, CPA (Secretary)Ryan Blain, CA (Treasurer)Paul Collis, ACCA (Membership Offi cer)Nick Haywood, CMA (Executive Member) Ruth Forbes, CPA (Executive Member);Keith Burant, CMA, STEP (Execu-tive Member)

Should anyone be inter-ested in learning more about the TCISPA, please contact one of our Executive Mem-bers or visit our website: www.tcispa.com.


LOCAL NEWSDr. Dawn O’Sullivan relishes InterHealth

Canada Community Liaison roleBY VIVIAN TYSON

Dr. Dawn O’Sullivan, former Deputy Chief of Med-ical Services for the Turks and Caicos Islands has

said that she is relishing in her new role as Commu-nity Liaison between InterHealth Canada and the community.

Under her new role, O’Sullivan is tasked with reaching out to the community, promoting posi-tive links between the hospitals and all communi-ty groups, including the church, on how they could utilize the services of the two entities – the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre on Providenciales and the Cock-burn Town Medical Facility in Grand Turk.

She will inform the community of the oppor-tunities that they could benefi t from, of which they otherwise may not know, or if any sections of the community faces diffi culties accessing the hospital, would point a way to alleviate those problems.

O’Sullivan said that she would be working with the different community groups to see how best they can utilize the hospitals services. A part of the promo-tion would be to inform the community when cer-tain specialists arrive in the country.

“I will be looking to working with groups such as the National AIDS Programme, the National Can-cer Society, reaching out to private practitioners, and responding to the needs of the community and the government. For instance, facilitating more of the government services within the hospitals; facilitating more of the outreach to the charity groups and inte-grating the charity groups with the hospitals as far as we can,” O’Sullivan said.

She said by virtue of her working in government before and knowing the workings of the TCI commu-nity for such a long time, gives her the knowledge of what’s at stake and how to make the relevant address.

“I think that I have been very privileged and hon-oured because I have worked in the government as

clinical director of HIV and AIDS, so I would hope that experience would assist me reaching out to the community. I also worked as a private practitioner in the community for a long time, and having had my role as well in Turks and Caicos InterHealth Hospi-tal, I feel that I am at a point now where I can be of-fered this role.

“And my vision is that we can have more owner-ship of the hospital, as a community. It is Turks and Caicos’ hospital; it belongs to the community, and I am very excited about strengthening those links,” O’Sullivan said.

The experienced medical practitioner said that she would use her offi ce to conduct interviews with the various groups to get feedback from them as to what more the medical facility could do to forge clos-er bonds going forward.

“…Not just to fi nd out what they expect from the Hospital but also the challenges that they have al-ready faced in interacting with the hospital and then, hopefully fi nding solutions to move forward,” O’Sul-livan said.

She pointed out that since there is already a com-plaints procedure adopted by the hospitals on day-to-day complaints, her role would not fall under such ar-rangements.

“I would hope though that, especially with oth-er colleagues – the private practitioners and the gov-ernment practitioners that they would bring to me their concerns, if they are having problems with the smooth transitioning,” she said.

Sullivan, who indicated that she would still retain her private practice, said that she would be using a fo-cus group to solicit information from targeted groups so as to make informed decisions.

Dr. Dawn O’Sullivan


LOCAL NEWS

9 children among pair of Haitian sloops arriving in TCIBY VIVIAN TYSON

Nine children were among the two sloops stacked with a total of 232

Haitians escaping arid economic con-ditions in their homeland and caught entering the Turks and Caicos Islands waters on Tuesday (October 29).

The arrivals of the boats were con-fi rmed by the Ministry of Border Con-trol and Labour, which issued a news release on the matter.

The ministry said that the vessels carrying illegal immigrants were in-tercepted by the Marine Branch of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Po-lice Force, after being detected by the Coastal Radar Station.

The SUN understands that the fi rst vessel was intercepted by the Marine Police at about 2a.m. It was brought safely to South Dock at about 5am, where 121 persons were taken off of it. The breakdown confi rmed 106 males and 14 females, inclusive of sev-en children.

The second vessel was spotted by the Coastal Radar Station at about 9a.m., and alerted the police, who lat-er intercepted it about 10:22a.m., and brought it to shore at about 12:50p.m., that same day. The count confi rmed 111 illegal Haitians, with a breakdown of 91 males and 20 females, which in-cluded two children.

At press time, the Ministry of Bor-der Control and Labour had pro-cessed them and was taking steps to repatriate them. They were being kept at the Detention Centre on Prov-idenciales.

In recent months, the Turks and Caicos Islands has seen a slew of boats loaded with illegal Haitian migrants turning up to our shores. The author-ities have been successful most of the time in nabbing the illegal migrants before they make landfall.

Some, on a few occasions, have managed to land undetected; the only

evidence they left of their arrival is the empty sloop they abandoned on sections of our beaches.

For years successive local govern-ments have been lobbying both the United Kingdom Government, which is responsible for border security of the Turks and Caicos, and the Haitian Government, to take steps to prevent desperate Haitians from fl ooding our shores.

Since the sweeping to power of President Michel Martelly in Haiti, apparent efforts have been made to get Haitians to abandon their intent

of taking to the high seas to get here, even though there has not seem to be much success on that front.

Lately a Haitian Consulate was es-tablished in the Turks and Caicos Is-lands, and through that offi ce, the Haitian community is being educat-ed on the dangers of receiving their il-legal countrymen and women when they get here.

Consular Karlo Pellissier, often told The SUN that warning messages have been broadcast to residents in Haiti not to risk leaving their country for further uncertainly in the Turks and Caicos Islands, pointing to a se-ries of ills that could happen to them even when in transit. Among them he said include death.

Pellissier said his offi ce has held meetings with the local Haitian Com-munity and warned them that when persons come here illegally they would be unable to fi nd a job, and even if on the odd chance they get a job, they open themselves up for em-ployment manipulation by unscrupu-lous employers.

The manipulation could include employers paying what he feels like, realizing that the worker is illegal. The illegal worker, if protest could be threatened with deportation by the boss, Pellissier said in one inter-view.

Irresponsible dog owners are increasing wild dog population

BY VIVIAN TYSON

Irresponsible dog ownership is one of the main in-gredients for the wild dog population explosion

across the Turks and Caicos Islands, according to Dr. Mark Butler, Chief Veterinary Offi cer in the Depart-ment of Agriculture

Dr. Butler was addressing the media along with Minister for Home Affairs and Public Safety Hon. Amanda Missick, at the Five Cays Community Cen-tre on Friday, November 1, where the international veterinary group - Pets Without Vets – was conduct-ing free spay and neutering clinic.

The SUN understands that since Government began its trapping and humane euthanizing process more than 200 dogs have been put down. And while Dr. Butler said he would not speak to specifi cs, stat-ed that, the high trapping and euthanizing number speaks to the irresponsible way owners have been caring for their pets. He said that most owners do not take their pets in for spay and neutering hence the explosion in the wild dog population.

“We trap around the clock, and we have seen suc-cess in certain areas that animals are seen to be a prob-lem. It has been reduced. But I hasten to say that trap-ping by itself will not solve the problem, you have to encourage people to be responsible animal owners to take their animals in to be spayed and neutered.

“An unspayed animal represents at least another 12,000; because once that one animal gives birth to 10 or 13 puppies, each one of those can give the same thing in turn, and therefore you can see the multi-plier effect,” he said.

He added: “The feral dog population has a source, and that source is irresponsible animal ownership. People take on more animal than what they can take care of. An animal is not going to roll over and play dead, so to speak, it is going to seek its own sustenance. And these animals getting preg-nant in the wild and this feed and drive the feral population.

“Responsible ownership is one of the corner-stones of the Animal Welfare Committee. That’s the message we are pushing, and you can see that in the billboards that we have. Spay and neuter your pets help to reduce the number of feral animals in the TCI.”

Dr. Butler said that Pets Without Vets, led by Dr. Robin Brennan, spayed and neutered approximate-ly 300 dogs between October 28 and November 1. He said that the feedback from the public was tremen-dous.

“It has been a tremendous week of activities here and the community responded very well, even be-yond our expectations in bringing in the animals to have them spayed and neutered. What that shows

is that the message that we have been putting out is actually resonating with the local community,” But-ler said.

For her part, Minister Missick said that said that government would be working with private stake-holders to get Pets Without Vets back next year to continue its spay and neutering exercise. She ap-plauded them for the tremendous job and said through their voluntary cause, the wild dog popula-tion could be reduced in the near future.

In the meantime, Butler said that a public/pri-vate partnership has been created between the De-partment of Agriculture, Potcake Place, Zero Toler-ance and the Hotel and Tourism Association to form the Animal Welfare Committee.

“We have created this committee to educate peo-ple on how to be responsible animals owners, and at the same time, to invite teams like Dr. Brennan’s to come down here to do spay and neuter because trapping alone by itself will not work,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Brennan said that the number of animals taken to be spayed and neutered exceeded the team’s expectation. She also said that the sup-port from the community was great.

“I think that it has been overwhelming and suc-cessful. We had close to 270 dogs and cats come in. the support from the vendors and the local commu-nity as far as restaurants and hotels that have sup-ported us; they have been so generous. The people at Potcake Place and the Animal Welfare Committee have been great to working with,” she said.

Dr. Robin Brennan (right) explains to Minister for Home Aff airs and Public Safety Hon. Amanda Missick (centre) and Chief Veterinary Offi cer, Dr. Mark

Butler on the spay and neutering at the Five Cays Community Centre.

Dogs are cared for by Pets Without Vets volunteers as they recover after being spayed and neuter

The illegal sloop which recently arrived in Turks and Caicos Islands from Haiti.


LOCAL NEWSBeaches invites hundreds of travel agents to

experience Turks and Caicos Islands this seasonThis week, 171 travel agents from Chicago, Illinois

will experience the Turks and Caicos Islands for themselves, all thanks to a unique partnership be-tween Beaches Resorts Villages and Spa, and its Mi-ami based marketing arm, Unique Vacations Inc.

In 2012, Beaches Resort saw the arrival of over 3,500 travel agents and a signifi cant increase in tour-ist traffi c to the islands as part of a wide-reaching ‘Megafam’ campaign.

This year, the Luxury Included resort will once again welcome hundreds of top-producing whole-salers and tour operators to showcase the brand new Key West Village as well as Turks & Caicos as an ideal vacation destination.

The annual event has already been hailed as a whopping success and has proven benefi cial for both the resort and the Turk & Caicos Islands. “We are delighted to announce that we have secured 11 Megafam trip tours for the Turks & Caicos islands,” said General Manager Donald Dagenais, “We look forward to not only showcasing what Beaches Re-sort has to offer as a luxury included family vaca-tion experience, but also to showcase our beautiful by nature Turks and Caicos as one of the best vaca-tion destination in the world.”

Last week the top resort offi cials along with the Premier of the Turks & Caicos, Honorable Dr. Rufus Ewing was at the Providenciales International Air-port to welcomed travel agents from Boston and New York. The Premier commented on the initiative, “It is with great pleasure we welcome the Megafam trav-el agents to the TCI,” he said, “I encourage them not only to share their Turks & Caicos experience with their clients but to visit again as we as we continue to expand and diversify our Tourism Product.”

“I congratulate Beaches Turks and Caicos Resort Villages and Spa on this initiative,” the Premier con-cluded.

Michelle Parker, Departure Lounge Man-ager for the resort, has seen these Megafam

trips come and go since the first arrival, and she and her team have been faithfully work-ing with local Taxi drivers to ensure that they leave a lasting final impression on the agents. “This is what we do during the slow season to keep our occupancy up while showcasing the islands and maintaining a steady revenue for both our employees and our local partners” Michelle said, “The off season is traditionally slow and so the income revenue for our taxi drivers, our local musicians and even our por-ters at the international airport can drop. Our goal is to use the Megafams to keep a steady in-

come for local partners.” The Megafam experience includes a two day

familiarization process which commenced with a welcome check–in session with local band Co-rey & the Boys, followed by a Sesame Street Pa-rade with Kitch Penn’s We’funk Junkanoo band. Agents are also taken on a Resort Tour visiting various room categories of each village and also experience a ‘dine-around’ experience at special-ty restaurants. Other entertainment includes a chocolate and martini buffet, Wet Fete festivi-ties at Pirate Islands, and a fun night of dancing at Liquid Night Club.

“Clean is Cool” – November dubbed Tourism Environmental Awareness month

In an effort to further sensitize our population about the importance

of tourism and the environment to our economic sustainability, the Turks and Caicos Tourist Board has simultaneously joined the Caribbe-an Tourism Organization (CTO) in its designation of November as Caribbe-an Tourism Month.

At their Providenciales offi ce yes-terday, the Tourist Board along with the Acting Premier, Minister of Ed-ucation, Youth and Sports, the Hon. Akeirra Missick, the Turks & Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association (TCH-TA), the Environmental Health De-partment and the Department of En-vironmental and Maritime Affairs (DEMA), hosted a press conference to offi cially launch and celebrate Tourism Environmental Awareness Month (TEAM), with the resounding message: ‘Tourism is Key – Clean is

Cool.’ TEAM is aimed at creating tour-

ism and environmental awareness among the population that will pos-itively improve the Turks and Cai-cos Islands for the pleasure and live-lihood of its citizens, the delight and comfort of our many visitors, and to educate our people on the impor-tance of tourism to the island and

the region.Hon. Akeirra Missick, brining re-

marks on behalf of the Minister of Tourism, Dr. the Hon. Rufus Ew-ing, commended the Tourist Board for embarking on such a campaign throughout the month noting, “We all have a role to play in developing our country as a primal tourism des-tination. The Turks and Caicos Is-lands Government is actively work-ing to improve the destination, our tourism product and the overall ex-perience for our visitors while they are on Island. These islands are in-deed ‘Beautiful by Nature’, but it is up to every one of us to ensure that the environment is protected and re-mains clean.”

The Director of Tourism, Mr. Ralph Higgs, stressed that our eco-nomic health and stability depends heavily on our environmental health, “The Caribbean is the most desirable, year-round warm weather destina-tion and coincidentally, it is the most tourism dependent economy in the world with some of the most fragile ecosystems – the Turks and Caicos is no exception. “

Mr. Higgs continued, “We contin-ually receive numerous accolades for our beaches and dive sites and Turks

and Caicos is touted as one of the top islands to visit, live in or retire to in the Caribbean; however, in or-der for us to continue to receive such accolades we must take our mes-sage throughout the Islands that in-deed, ‘Clean is Cool.’ We must re-member the importance of tourism to our economy, we must be proac-tive, and we must continue to edu-cate our people about the benefi ts of environmental sustainability to the Turks and Caicos.”

A number of education and inter-active activities to encourage sustain-able practices have been scheduled to celebrate the month:

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Lead by DEMA, features:

• Visits to schools on the island of Providenciales – Migratory Birds Lessons

• Mangrove planting, cleaning of the fl ats

• Stakeholders workshop host-ed by CTO Representative

NOVEMBER 13 – Tourist Board

visit to SOUTH CAICOS schools


Lead by the Turks and Caicos Tour-

ist Board features:

• Visits to schools on Providen-ciales and other family islands.

• The Youth Congress Competi-tion

TCI COMMUNITY COLLEGE –

Open House

• Culinary Skills presentation


Lead by TCHTA features:

• TCI Shine Clean Up Campaign • Clean up of Long Bay BeachVisually stunning billboards fea-

turing ‘Henry the Conch’ have been placed on roadways and in communi-ties throughout the Islands highlight-ing the theme, “Clean Is Cool.” Addi-tionally, a new jingle complementing the theme, will be aired today on a va-riety of radio stations country-wide and an upbeat public service an-nouncement featuring current Junior Minister of Tourism, Willandra Elliot, will air on PTV8 and WIV networks, emphasizing the message that every-one must play their part in keeping the Islands pristine.

The Tourist Board invites all cit-izens, hoteliers, tour operators, and visitors to join us in our campaign to keep the Turks and Caicos Islands for-ever ‘Beautiful by Nature.’

Travel agents who arrived on the Beaches jet.


LOCAL NEWSWesley Methodist is 2013 AIDS Debate winner

BY VIVIAN TYSON

Wesley Methodist High School out-classed eight other institutions

to win the 2013 renewal of the Minis-try of Health and Human Services/Na-tional HIV/AIDS Programme Inter-High School Debate competition.

Wesley Methodist opposed the moot: “Be it resolved that the most ef-fective model for achieving zero new infections and deaths is a change in behavior,” went up against Majorie Basden High from South Caicos. The team posed a number of strong points during presentations and sealed the is-sue on rebuttal, to win over the judg-es’ hearts.

British West Indies Collegiate and TCIPS Comprehensive High tied for third place, while Champions for Christ was second.

The event was held at the Occa-sions Ballroom which is located in the Airport Hotel, on Airport Road.

Wesley’s second speaker, Willan-dra Elliot was crowned best speak-er for the event. Elliot was elated at her schools and individual win, tell-ing The SUN that she relishes debates. She said that she has been debating for years and the win was a good send off for her, having now being a senior at Wesley Methodist.

“I have been debating in the AIDS

Debate since I am in fi rst form, and de-bating on a whole since I was in pri-mary school,” Elliot said.

She described this year’s staging as one of the best, since most of the schools came with the A game, includ-ing opponents Majorie Basden High.

“It was a healthy challenge for both of us; that was the important part,” said the aspiring double law major and political scientist.

The team’s coach Joel Charleme-hene said that preparation was bumpy since they began preparation just fi ve days before the competition. She said that the fi rst speaker had dropped out two days to competition and her re-placement was a debate debutant. She said also that the third speaker had an emergency in the Bahamas on compe-tition day, but a delay in fl ight allowed her to participate in the debate.

They burned the midnight oil and there were countless practices, but the main thing was that the interest was there; the motivation was there, and because of that, then the product is success,” Charlemehene said.

Aldora Robinson, Head of the Na-tional AIDS Programme said that this year’s competition was one of the best years that the entity has staged. She believes that the competitors did deeper researches, and debated their points more authoritatively this year.

“We had a good calibre of students that debated well. They did lots of re-search they had facts and the ambi-ence of the (Occasions) Ballroom real-ly made it come alive. They were much better this year; they had better deliv-ery and facts, and the fact that this year we had more persons who asked for points of information; that enhanced the information that came across and gave people time to examine whether this is true or not,” Robinson said.

Acting Premier and Minister of Ed-ucation Youth and Sport Hon. Akierra Missick, said that she thoroughly en-joyed the exchanges and believes that for the most part, the children were properly prepped for the contest.

“I really enjoyed today’s debate. Some school sort of above the rest. Some schools stayed true to the tra-ditional debate forms, which was, un-fortunately, just reading their speech and unable to answer questions when they were challenged and point of in-formation was requested, which is the integral part of a debate. And some schools were shining stars,” she said.

Minister Missick added: “You can tell they enjoyed the research they did. They had the facts and fi gures off the top of their heads. And they were able to be interrupted during the fl ow of their presentations, and answered the question thoughtfully and with the correct information. And it was ex-

citing to see that there were a lot more boys taking part this year,” the Acting Premier said.

In the meantime, Director for Ed-ucation Edgar Howell, who was also the head judge, while commending the participants for their spirited argu-ments, pointed to future participants a number of negatives that they should guard against. This, he said include re-peating the moot, which he said short-ens the presenter’s three allotted min-utes, and urged to be more articulate in responses to points of information posed by the opposing team.

Donnelle Baptiste of HJ Robinson High in Grand Turk was her team’s fi rst speaker

The panel of judges

Director of Culture, David Bowen relates one of his many TCI folklores, much to the delight of the audience

The Majorie Basden High School from South Caicos

Minister of Education Youth and Sport Hon. Akierra Missick addressing the audience

A section of the audience at the Occasions Conference Centre, Airport Hotel.


Crackpot Kitchen opens with a bangBY VIVIAN TYSON

Crackpot Kitchen, Turks and Caicos Islands newest culinary sensation

which opens last Friday (November 1) is slated to be the most unique dining experience on Providenciales – serv-ing up international dishes with local fl avor.

Located at the Village at Grace Bay by the old Lemon site, Crackpot Kitch-en, owned and operated by local ce-lebrity cooking wizard and Digicel Ambassador – Chef Nik – is already shaping up to be the dining place of choice on Providenciales.

The opening was well attended by both the local and international com-munity. Among the patrons to the opening were Deputy Premier Hon. Akierra Missick, opposition Leader Hon. Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson and a number of movers and shakers in the private sector.

Chef Nik, whose given name is Ni-kita Skippings, and who took time from his bustling schedule of feting the scores of patrons who turned out at the opening, told The SUN that Crackpot kitchen is designed to be a unique restaurant, serving up Turks and Caicos in every dish.

According to him, all the delectable dishes that one can fi nd at a gourmet restaurant will be available at Crack-pot Kitchen, only with Turks and Ca-icos style.

“My expectation is smiles, happy faces and people leaving here know-ing that they received remarkable ser-vice, great Caribbean food and Turks and Caicos cuisine at its best,” said Chef Nik. “My aim is to push and pro-mote Turks and Caicos cuisines, to promote Turks and Caicos, so when guests enter this country they know they are tasting Turks and Caicos cui-sines at its bets.”

He added: “My cuisine and the menu are Turks and Caicos/Carib-bean cuisines with an international twist. You are going to get steak, but you are going to get it Turks and Cai-cos style. You are going to get lobster, you are going to get lamb, you are go-ing to get salmon, you are going to get Italian pastas, but it is going to have that Turks and Caicos and Caribbean fl air in it.”

Chef Nix said that the restaurant was born from his ultra popular tele-vision show – Crackpot Kitchen – which the public has grown to love. As a result of Crockpot Kitchen, Chef Nik said that he received a great deal of requests to cater at events, disclos-ing also that persons were beginning to urge him to open a restaurant.

“The demand for a restaurant was inevitable. People were asking where the restaurant is. ‘We want to taste some of your cuisine that we tried on the (TV) show’. So, what better thing to do than to give the people what they have been asking for,” he said.

Steve Nolan, partner in the busi-ness, said that he was only too over-joyed to join Chef Nik on this ven-ture, owing to his great talent and matching personality that he possess-es.

“All I know is this (Chef Nik) is my brother right here, and anything he does I am all behind it. I love the is-land. I love the people, I love the food,

and I know that it is going to be to a great success because this guy (Chef Nik) is just tremendous,” he said.

Deputy Premier Hon. Akierra Mis-ick said that she has been following Chef Nik’s career and is happy that he got to open the restaurant, which she believes is another step by him to fl y the fl ag of Turks and Caicos high.

“I am very excited about the open-ing of this restaurant. I fully support-ed Chef Nik in the past. I was a judge on the competition on episode two of Crackpot Kitchen TV show. And over the years I got to know Niki-ta when he was at these other ven-ues, and just believe that he has tak-en the Turks and Caicos Islands food approach to a higher level,” said the deputy premier.

In the meantime, Cartwright-Rob-inson said that she was always happy to see Chef Nik climbing to another level in his culinary career, having, at one stage, taught him in school.

“Many people don’t know but I taught Nik in grade 1. So he is Nikita to me. I am very, very proud of him. It takes a very brave person to step out in these times. He has stepped out in beginning of the tourism season, but he shouldn’t just have to rely on tour-ism; Turks Islanders need to come out and support this young entrepre-neur,” Cartwright-Robinson said.

Crackpot Kitchen will offer lunch and dinner. Its opening hours will be from 11a.m. to 10p.m., every day.

Chef Nik (left) take time for a photo op with one of his waiters during the

opening of Crackpot Kitchen.



Former Premier Michael Misick’s mansion renting for US$2900 per night

The mansion of former Turks and Ca-icos Islands Premier Michael Misick

is on the market renting for US$2900 per night.

According to the website Carib-ique Villa rentals, the estate covers 2.5 acres and has a spectacular glass-bot-tom, infi nity-edge swimming pool and stunning views across the turquoise Leeward Channel to Mangrove Cay. At-tention has been paid to every single detail at Villa Blanche and the staff will do everything to ensure guests enjoy a truly memorable vacation.

The well-appointed mansion has a design that is similar to the White House in Washington.

From November 10 to December 15, 2013, guests can give thanks in luxury with the Thanksgiving special at Villa Blanche, a fully-staffed Turks and Cai-cos villa rental.

The Thanksgiving special offer is for a maximum of 10 guests (5 bed-rooms) and includes full chef services for breakfast, lunch and dinner, private butler, private concierge, private chauf-feur and daily housekeeping services. One complimentary gourmet dinner celebration is also included in the re-duced price of only $2,900.00 per night (plus 12% government tax, 10% service charge and optional air conditioning). To qualify for this special offer, the res-ervation must be for a minimum of three nights.

The website stated: “This is a per-fect opportunity for guests to expe-rience the fully-staffed luxury of Vil-la Blanche in the “beautiful by nature” Turks and Caicos Islands. In addition to the Thanksgiving special at Villa Blanche, there are a number of Caribbe-an villa rentals with late availability for Thanksgiving and some are also offer-ing discounts of up to 25%.”

“Apart from the drastically reduced rate, one of the great things about this special offer is that it enables guests to celebrate Thanksgiving with their fam-ilies and friends a little early, right on time or even a little late, but always in luxurious style,” said Carl McBurnie, owner of CARIBIQUE.






Pitbull ft Jennifer Lopez -

LIVE IT UP LYRICSFrom the streets of Miami, to presenting at the GrammysCon el multito de Jennifer, maybe now you understand me

Clap your hands, go clap your hands, go clap your hands to the beat (x2)

Mr. Worldwide, Red One, and the beautiful Jennifer LopezDale

We don’t believe in defeat, that’s why we’re back for a three peatHi Jenny, mira que esta locoYo me locomo como pastelitos de CocoI get stupid on a beach, see wowoI got mommies, mommies by the boatloadYo tengo la carne y ella el mojoI’m sayin’ dale, she’s screamin’ “YOLO”She’s Little Red Riding Hood and guess whose el lobo (me la como)?Whose name is globally known?Whose name on the check and they’re adding an O?Whose name on the blimp when the world is yours?Whose name on the schools, slam fo’ sho’!I know it’s hard to understand how a boy grew to a manMan turned to a brandBut guess what, here I amJenny from the block, let’s rock

[Verse 1]Yeah push me harder, I do the sameBoy I wanna feel you in every wayDon’t even wonder it’s just a gameWe’re rockin’ body to body, let’s go insane

[Bridge]I hit the spotlight, all night, ready to goGive you a hard night, so tight, ready to blowI’m in the spotlight, all night, ready to goGive you a hard night, so tight, ready to blow

[Chorus]Oh, we can do anything we wantLive it up, so live it up, live it up, goOh, and we ain’t stoppin’ ’till we’re doneLive it up, so live it up, live it upGo, go, go, etc.

[Spoken]Make love, don’t fi ghtLet’s hook tonight

[Verse 2]Turn up this mother and let it play (mami)I know you like my bumper, don’t be ashamed (que rico)Don’t even wonder it’s just a game (mami)We’re rockin’ body to body, let’s go insane (que rico)

[Bridge]I hit the spotlight, all night, ready to goGive you a hard night, so tight, ready to blowI’m in the spotlight, all night, ready to goGive you a hard night, so tight, ready to blow

[Chorus]Oh, we can do anything we wantLive it up, so live it up, live it up, goOh, and we ain’t stoppin’ ’till we’re doneLive it up, so live it up, live it upGo, go, go, etc.

[Spoken]Make love, don’t fi ghtLet’s hook tonight

[Spoken]You name it, she’s done itShe’s the reason that women run itBet this on a GrammyMaybe now you understand meClap your hands, go clap your hands, go clap your hands to the beat (x3)

[Chorus]Oh, we can do anything we wantLive it up, so live it up, live it up, goOh, and we ain’t stoppin ’till we’re doneLive it up, so live it up, live it upGo, go, go, etc.

[Spoken]Let’s hook tonight (x2)



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NewsCARIBBEAN

Barbados Government gives Butch Stewart concessions worth millions of dollars

BARBADOS GOVERNMENT GIVES BUTCH STEWART CONCESSIONS WORTH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS

The Barbados government has grant-ed millions of dollars in concessions

to Jamaican hotel magnate Gordon “Butch” Stewart who recently signed an agreement to operate a Beaches Re-sort and Sandals hotel there.

According to an article written by Roy Morris, Editor-in-Chief of the Bar-bados Nation newspaper, for the next 25 years, Beaches and Sandals will be exempted from paying all import du-ties, taxes including VAT, imposts and levies of any nature whatsoever on the importation or local purchase on all capital goods needed for the equip-ping, operation and promotion of the hotel, as well as on all food and bev-erages.

When that tax holiday period is over, Sandals will only be required to pay half of the “applicable rates and taxes prevailing” for the next 15 years.

The details of the concessions were contained in a letter dated Tues-day, November 5th, 2013, and signed by Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Chris Sinckler.

The Nation newspaper said the tax holiday period began on Tuesday, the day before Sandals offi cially began op-eration in Barbados and encompasses the period before the start date of the commercial operation of the hotel, and while it is being acquired, expand-ed and developed. Sandals in Barba-dos will be managed by Josef Zellner, who once managed Beaches Turks and Caicos Islands.

The Barbados Minister of Finance further advised that the letter was only interim approval which shall re-main valid until replaced by a per-manent letter together with the ap-propriate statutory instrument to be issued by him.

What the newspaper describes as a “sweetheart deal”, includes the waiv-er of:-

(a) all import duties, taxes, imposts and levies of any nature whatsoever, including Value Added Tax, on the im-portation or local purchase of:

(i) all capital goods such as build-ing materials, articles of hotel equipment, furniture. furnishings, fi xtures, fi ttings, construction ma-chinery, boats, watercraft, vehicles for the Hotel’s use, televisions, com-puter equipment, telephones, soft-ware, hardware, shrubs and plants, garden and agriculture equipment, promotional and marketing materi-als for operating the Hotel and for the cyclical re-furbishing undertak-en from time to time in order to maintain the Hotel to the standards of the Sandals brand;

(ii) consumables for the operation of the Hotel, including but not limit-ed to operating supplies, soft furnish-ings, printed materials, guest supplies,

spa supplies, paper, stationery, books and spare parts for equipment;

(iii) food, alcohol and beverages;(b) all import duties taxes, imposts

and levies of any nature whatsoever on all vehicles required for the opera-tion of the Hotel including vehicle as-signed to senior managers;

(c) all import duties taxes, imposts and levies of any nature whatsoev-er on personal and household effects and vehicles for senior staff (as out-lined in (b) above) who are contracted to work in Barbados and are not citi-zens or permanent residents of Barba-dos;

(d) Value Added Tax on the provi-sion of services that directly relate to construction works or cyclical re-furbishment of the Hotel undertak-en from time to time in order to main-tain the Hotel to the standards of the Sandals brand;

(e) all import duties taxes, imposts and levies of any nature whatsoever on all vehicles required for the opera-tion of the Hotel including vehicle as-signed to senior managers; and

(f) all import duties taxes, imposts and levies of any nature whatsoev-er on personal and household effects and vehicles for staff who are con-tracted to work in Barbados and are not citizens or permanent residents of Barbados.

Jordan Samuda, group manager, procurement division of Sandals Inter-national, said the conglomerate was delighted with the terms of the con-cessions, which he described as com-petitive.

“The product that we will put out in Barbados will be one of the best that we put out anywhere in the Ca-ribbean,” Samuda told the Nation via telephone from Jamaica.

Samuda said he did not think San-dals would have been able achieve the

excellence their brand represented without the concessions, and noted that the tax breaks would allow them to able to keep their product in tune with the times.

“They allow you to put a product out for your guests that can compete with anybody worldwide. . . . Duty free concessions allow us to up the ante on the food and beverage product. You have the physical aspect which you can continue improving and contin-ue investing in, you also have the dai-ly food and beverage product that you are able to provide.

The Sandals executive praised the effi ciency of Sinckler and the various civil servants, Customs and Port Au-thority for facilitating the group to swiftly get the relevant documenta-tion and materials processed between the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Govern-ment on October 18 and the hotel’s opening on Wednesday.

He was particularly impressed with Sinckler, the Barbados Minister of Fi-nance, saying: “Obviously the minister understands and can see what this lev-el of investment in Barbados can do and will do.”

In his recent ministerial statement on the MOU between Government and Sandals International, Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy said the arriv-al of Sandals marked a “seismic shift for the tourism industry in Barbados” in its effort to capture a bigger share in the very competitive global tourism market.

“It is expected that these two prop-erties will contribute annually in net terms, that is, the money to be re-tained by the taxi drivers providing transfers, the farmers; the 1 500 work-ers; the utility companies and others an amount in excess of BDS$100 mil-lion to the Barbadian economy.”

Dominica celebrates 35 years of political independenceROSEAU, Dominica – Dominicans have been urged

to embrace freedom of movement within the re-gion as the country celebrates its 35th year of Indepen-dence from Britain.

President Charles Savarin in his message to the na-tion said this must be done to give meaning and rele-vance to the regional integration movement.

“We must embrace the freedom of movement and right of establishment provisions of the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) and OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) treaties and welcome our OECS and CARICOM citizens who take up residence here in much the same way that we would expect to be welcomed in other CARICOM and OECS countries in which we seek to reside and work. Our CARICOM Community Passport is one of the most tangible sym-bols which identifi es us as citizens of a wider Caribbe-an community”.

“If we truly embrace regional integration as the way forward for our overall development, we must refrain from statements and actions which in their ordinary meaning could be interpreted as being insular, hateful,

racist and xenophobic. In a democracy, we must toler-ate differences in opinion on a whole range of subject matters including matters of policy and national devel-opment. Debate on such issues must be respectful of other people’s views, of the law and the Constitution, and should not degenerate into acrimonious exchang-es aimed at destroying the personal or public reputa-tion of those with whom we disagree,” he added.

The President also acknowledged Martinique and Guadeloupe’s interest in becoming members of CAR-ICOM and the OECS.

“The economic and social benefi ts of such expand-ed regional integration are tremendous, especially for us here in Dominica as we are located between these two overseas departments of France”.

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in his address said Dominicans should refl ect on the advances made as a nation.

“The road has not always been easy, but we have persevered and in the process, we have lifted Domini-ca to be a strong performer in moving towards achieve-ment of the targets of the Millennium Development

Goals and we have managed to place some of our na-tionals on the regional and the world stage.”

“At independence we focus on nation building. However, nation building does not only occur during the few weeks of celebration when our culture takes the forefront. Our nation is at a pivotal point in its de-velopment. Though we have made tremendous strides, there is still more work to be done. There is still more to achieve. There is still more to celebrate. We must do our best because where mortals have done their best angels can hardly do much better,” he said.

Opposition leader, Hector John, acknowledged the sacrifi ces made over the years by the people.

“These unwavering sacrifi ces must be deeply root-ed in the respect and true appreciation for the dictates of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Domi-nica. The Constitution should be uncompromisingly and meticulously followed and fulfi lled. This provides us with the assurance that our democratic process is thriving successfully,” he noted.

The theme of the independence celebrations is “One Mission, One Dominica, Celebrating 35.

Gordon “Butch” Stewart


CARIBBEAN NEWS

Jamaican man complains of two years of hell in a Barbados prison

A Jamaican man, who claims he was locked up in the maximum

security section of Her Majesty’s Pris-on in Barbados for two years without being brought before a court, says he is suing that state for false imprison-ment, wrongful arrest and pain and suffering.

Fifty-year-old Jahnoy Cassells said the xenophobia of an immigration offi cer resulted in him being arrest-ed and thrown into prison despite committing no crime or breaching any immigration law. Cassells said he was living in Guyana and travelled to Barbados at the invitation of the Bar-badian parents of his girlfriend, who was born in Guyana.

“I got no hassle at the airport and was in Barbados for a couple weeks before I decided to access a work per-mit so I could organise a reggae con-cert featuring Sugar Minott, who fa-thered four children with my sister,” Cassells told the Jamaica Observer.

It was when he went to the immi-gration department in Barbados in January 2010, Cassells said, that his ordeal began.

He said after an immigration of-fi cer began perusing his application, the offi cer told him that Jamaicans were not wanted in that eastern Ca-ribbean state. “He just said ‘we don’t want you here’. I asked why and said what he was doing was wrong but he took my documents and arranged for me to be taken to the (Grantley Ad-ams) airport.

They locked me in a cell and tried to deport me the next day,” he said. Cassells claimed that the immigra-tion offi cial, upon learning that he was in the country with his Guyanese girlfriend, sent for the woman and or-dered her to bring his belongings.

“When she arrived with my things, them lock her up too, and send her out of the country. Dem tell her say she should never deh with no Jamai-can, is a Barbadian she should have and she wouldn’t get that treatment,” he said. According to Cassells, his Ja-maican passport had expired and he was given special documents with which to travel by the Guyanese Gov-ernment.

The authenticity of the docu-ments were not challenged by the Barbadian authorities at the airport, he said, and he even made efforts to collect the passport, for which he had previously applied, from the Jamai-can consulate in Barbados as the con-

sulate in Guyana had recently shut down operations.

“The next day they came for me and attempted to deport me, but I re-fused, all the time telling them that I did not commit myself criminally so I can’t be deported and what they were doing was wrong,” he said. “The immigration offi cer attempted to give my documents to an air hostess and I objected strongly because she was not qualifi ed to handle my doc-uments.

They handed the boarding pass and the documents to me and I tore them up. The pilot then stepped in and said he was not fl ying with me,” he said. But Cassells’s actions only seemed to infuriate the Barbadian au-thorities more and soon he was cart-ed off to prison, he alleged.

“They came for me in plainclothes and took me to Her Majesty’s Pris-on. There I was placed in the maxi-mum security section with convicted murderers and all kinds of hardened criminals when I never committed a crime,” he said, while fi ghting back tears. He claimed to have endured a life of hell for two years inside the pe-nal facility which is located at St Phil-lips and houses male, female and ju-venile detainees and convicts.

“I was only let out to bathe. It was constant lock-down. I don’t eat meat and they carried pork for me. I went on a hunger strike and they stripped me of my clothes and locked me down in a cell with just four walls for weeks. I had to sleep on bare con-crete naked.

I endured hell and all the while I was thinking that I never committed

a crime to deserve such inhumane treatment,” he said. Cassells claimed to have witnessed an inmate on the R block where he was housed commit suicide. “The man had months to go to fi nish his sentence and his mother came to look for him regularly.

I watched as he tore up a sheet and hung himself in his cell. That is how hard the prison conditions are. His sentence would soon be over and he still killed himself,” Cassells said. He said after a while he began con-templating suicide himself, when it seemed that he had no hope of at-taining freedom.

“The warders kept telling the oth-er prisoners that I was withholding information from customs. I was nev-er taken to court and every letter I wrote to the Jamaican consulate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and my rel-atives were torn up by the guards. No one knew where I was,” he said. The obviously broken man told the Sun-day Observer that after he had spent one year and eight months incarcer-ated, a guard overheard him planning to kill himself and had him taken to a psychiatrist.

“I told the psychiatrist I was not crazy but had been kidnapped and locked in the prison for almost two years without being taken to court or committing any crime. He was very shocked and told me to keep it to my-self as he was going to assist me. The doctor got in touch with the Jamai-can consulate and efforts started to be made to get me out,” he said.

With tears in his eyes, Cassells claimed that it was only then that he was allowed to contact his rel-

atives. “I called my son’s mother in Canada and immediately she start-ed asking me how I treat her so and how my son was wondering if I was dead. I told her what happened to me and she grew very upset and de-manded to speak to the prison au-thorities.

I put them on the phone, but I am not sure what they said,” he claimed. The Sunday Observer has since con-tacted the woman in Canada who confi rmed that she had written him off and was shocked to know of his ordeal. “I wasn’t sure if he was still alive. They did not give me any good explanation why they treated him like that and locked him up for noth-ing.

It was a terrible time for my son, who kept asking for his father,” the woman said. Cassells is the father of four more children. When the de-tails of his tribulation at the hands of the Barbadian authorities came to light, the Jamaican Government start-ed making efforts to get him out of prison. In three months, exactly two years to the date when he was fl ung into a maximum security cell, he was released.

“I never even knew that Michael Jackson died. I never saw daylight for a long time. There were Africans in the prison who overstayed their time and they were held in the minimum security section where they could play cards and watch TV, but because I was Jamaican they treated me like a dog,” Cassells charged.“I did not de-serve that treatment, as I am an hon-est man who has never been in trou-ble with the law.

US to curtail offshore tax evasion in the Caribbean

WASHINGTON – The United States Department of Treasury says it is taking steps to curtail off-

shore tax evasion in the Caribbean and other places.The US Treasury Department along with the US

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have issued a notice for foreign fi nancial institutions (FFIs) to comply with information reporting and withholding tax provisions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

The department said the FATCA is “rapidly be-coming the global standard in the effort to curb off-shore tax evasion.”

According to the Treasury Department , to date it has reached 16 agreements “in substance and is en-gaged in related conversations with many more ju-risdictions.”

“The notice, which is the next step in implemen-tation, previews proposed guidance and provides a draft agreement for participating FFIs directly en-gaging in agreements with the IRS and those report-ing through a Model 2 intergovernmental agree-ment (IGA),” the statement said.

“It provides FFIs with advance notice prior to the beginning of FATCA withholding and account due diligence requirements on July 1, 2014,” it add-ed, stating that the FFI agreement will be fi nalized by year’s end.

Robert B. Stack, the US Deputy Assistant Secre-tary for International Tax Affairs, said the Agree-ment and forthcoming guidance have been de-signed to “minimize administrative burdens and related costs for foreign fi nancial institutions and

withholding agents.”He said the latest preview “demonstrates the Ad-

ministration’s commitment to ensuring full global cooperation and a smooth implementation.”

In 2010, the US Congress enacted FATCA as “a way to identify US citizens using foreign accounts to evade their US tax responsibilities.”

FATCA requires US fi nancial institutions to with-hold a portion of payments made to FFIs that do not agree to identify and report information on US account holders.

The US Treasury Department said it has taken a global approach to the exchange of tax information in its implementation of FATCA.

Barbados Prison complex


CARIBBEAN NEWS

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK REMAINS NEGATIVE

Despite government plans to implement value added tax (VAT) and the planned opening of

Baha Mar, Wall Street continues to see the “risks tilted to the downside” for the Bahamian economy, with an “open question” remaining as to wheth-er Baha Mar will “substitute” rather than “comple-ment” Atlantis and whether the government will be successful in implementing VAT alongside oth-er key policy measures, according to a key analyst.

Commenting in the wake of credit rating agen-cy Standard & Poor’s (S&P) affi rmation of The Baha-mas BBB/A-2 rating and “negative” outlook, prima-ry credit analyst for The Bahamas Dr Lisa Schineller said the agency is confi dent the government has a “plan to turn the trajectory” of its defi cit and debt positions around.

However, according to the Nassau Guardian, Schineller pointed to the question of whether VAT will be implemented, the possibility of any reve-nue-based erosion, the ability to implement oth-er measures to contain expenditure, and the “risks” associated with the potential for Baha Mar to suc-cessfully grow the Bahamian economy as factors feeding into the continued “negative” outlook for the economy.

Noting that the government has given no indi-cation to the credit rating agency that it intends to postpone the implementation of VAT – as has been proposed by the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) on behalf of its private sector members – Schineller indicat-ed that the agency would keep a close eye on what happens with implementation of the new tax re-gime.

And she emphasized that VAT alone cannot solve The Bahamas’ problems.

“Obviously it needs to be alongside continued expenditure containment, and then the potential is there that this can turn around the fi scal trajecto-ry, but there are still downside risks,” she said.

“First of all it hasn’t been implemented; it’s be-ing discussed we don’t have legislation on it yet. The game plan is to have discussions in coming weeks, moving on to passing something early next year and the goal of implementation in the middle of next year.

“We would be watching the time profi le in terms of if targets get changed or not but also the accom-panying policies the government is also looking at improving and expects to gain additional revenue from. We’ll be looking at a variety of things that could go alongside a VAT in terms of delivery. VAT, if implemented along with other factors such as not spending all the revenue, and a group of policies focused on better revenue generation, can bring down debt burden and turn the fi scal defi cits onto a declining trend.”

Asked if postponement of VAT could impact the agency’s rating of the Bahamian economy, or its outlook, Schineller said this would depend on the “context of the postponement”.

“We would have to look at what would be the countervailing measures. It would have to be tak-en in a broader context – how long, how much and what else happens in the interim.”

In its release accompanying the affi rmation of The Bahamas BBB/A-2 rating on Wednesday, S&P said it could lower its rating on The Bahamas by “one or two notches if the administration does not take additional action to reduce The Bahamas’ fi s-cal defi cit and arrest the increase in debt to GDP over the next several years”.

However, it said that the outlook could be up-graded to “stable” if there is “effective tax reform” or if Baha Mar “produces greater economic growth with more positive fi scal and external spillovers than we currently expect”. A “negative” outlook is given if there is a greater than one in three chance of a downward adjustment in the rating.

Speaking with Guardian Business, Schineller echoed the uncertainty expressed by some in the Bahamian private sector about the potential im-pact of Baha Mar on the economy, and therefore on the government’s overall fi scal position in the medium to long term.

“The view or hopes are that it will add more ro-bustness to the growth outlook, but it is somewhat of an open question. Certainly the government doesn’t think so and Baha Mar doesn’t think so, but how much there might be substitution as opposed to complementing Atlantis is something we’ll see over time, and we’re aware there are risks there, so we’re not seeing a rapid growth trajectory in the longer term forecast,” she said.

“There’s the question of whether they can bring in a different profi le of tourists. Baha Mar is looking not so much at the family orientation but more for single tourists or more Asia-focused and that could very well be an alternative anchor for growth, but we’d also highlight it’s an open question.

“You’ve got the whole airlift question, and then there are the infrastructure pressures. Can the is-land manage and effectively have a complement to Atlantis or will there be some substitution? I think we do have growth over a couple of years out, but we don’t have it doubling and part of that is that there is somewhat of an open question.”

“We’ll only know with time.”

Haiti anti-government protest turns violentThousands of Haitian protesters demanding the

resignation of President Michel Martelly clashed with supporters of the leader in the streets of Port-au-Prince on Thursday.

Haiti has seen a wave of anti-government pro-tests over the past month, with demonstrators ac-cusing Martelly of failing to ease poverty and unem-ployment, and demanding his resignation.

Protesters said two people suffered gunshot wounds after Martelly loyalists opened fi re during Thursday’s skirmishes.

The two sides hurled stones at each other during the fi ghting, which brought parts of the city to a standstill and triggered huge traffi c jams.

Anti-Martelly demonstrators accused the Haitian president of cronyism, charging that he is ruling the impoverished Caribbean nation for the benefi t of his friends and family.

“We are from the ghettos. We get nothing from the government, which works only for the rich,” protester Johnny Joseph shouted.

The march began peacefully as the crowd grew to a few thousand people and passed through poor neighborhoods, many of them strongholds of gov-ernment critics.

“This is the people’s fi ght for a change for bet-ter conditions,’’ said Carlo Jean Daniel as he walked among the marchers. “Nothing is coming down for the people.”

The demonstrators were dispersed by police af-ter attempting to reach the Presidential Palace.

The United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in Haiti issued a statement Thursday asking the di-vided legislative and executive branches to agree on “priority political issues,” which include holding elections.

Three new justices for Cayman Islands Court of AppealThree new justices have been

named to the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal, giving the court a full complement of judges.

Typically the court is presid-ed over by a three-judge panel, in-cluding its president, Sir John Chad-wick, on a rotating basis.

The new members, recruited by the Judicial and Legal Services Com-mission and approved by Governor Helen Kilpatrick, were announced Thursday.

They are Sir Bernard Rix, Sir George Newman and John Martin, QC.

Following a short-listing process, an interview panel consisting of Sir John Chadwick, commission chair-man Dan Scott, commission mem-bers Sir David Simmons and Baron-ess Scotland, and Cayman Islands Chief Justice Anthony Smellie inter-viewed fi ve applicants for the posts.

“Each of these new justices of appeal has an impressive and dis-tinguished legal career which will

complement the experience of our present court of appeal,” Governor Kilpatrick said. “I look forward to welcoming them to the Cayman Is-lands over the next year when each of them will sit for the fi rst time.”

Mr. Rix is a recently retired Lord Justice of Appeal of England and Wales, with 20 years’ experience in the commercial court and the court of appeal. He is professor of inter-national commercial law at Queen

Mary University of London. He has previous experience as a High Court judge and a barrister specializing in international commercial and arbi-tral disputes. His appointment was effective from Nov. 1 for a fi ve-year renewable term.

Mr. Newman is a surveillance commissioner for England and Wales and chairman of the securi-ty vetting appeals panel in the Cab-inet offi ce. He was formerly a High

Court judge of the Queen’s Division Bench in London and now sits as a deputy judge. He served as a justice of the court of appeal in the Baha-mas for two years and has acted as a barrister in cjurisdictions includ-ing Hong Kong, Singapore, Malay-sia, Brunei, Fiji and the Caribbean. His appointment is effective July 1, 2014, for a three-year renewable term.

Mr. Martin has been a judge of the courts of appeal of Jersey and Guernsey since 2007. He has sat as a deputy High Court judge in the Chancery Division since 1993. He is a barrister practicing from Lon-don in a wide range of commercial and chancery work and is current-ly head of chambers. Mr. Martin’s appointment is effective March 1, 2014, for a fi ve-year renewable term.

Other members of the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal include Jus-tice E. Mottley, Justice A. Conteh, Sir Anthony Campbell and Sir Rich-ard Ground.

Haitian riot policemen stand guard between anti-government protesters and government supporters during an anti-government

protest in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013

Sir Bernard Rix (left), Sir George Newman and John Martin


NewsW RLD

Philippine typhoon death toll could reach 10,000As many as 10,000 people are believed to have

died in one Philippine city alone when one of the worst storms on record sent giant sea waves, washing away homes, schools and airport build-ings, offi cials said Sunday. Ferocious winds rav-aged several central islands, burying people un-der tons of debris and leaving corpses hanging from trees.

Regional police chief Elmer Soria said he was briefed by Leyte provincial Gov. Dominic Petilla late Saturday and told there were about 10,000 deaths in the province, mostly by drowning and from collapsed buildings. The governor’s fi gure was based on reports from village offi cials in ar-eas where Typhoon Haiyan slammed Friday. Ta-cloban city administrator Tecson Lim said that the death toll in the city alone “could go up to 10,000.” Tacloban is the Leyte provincial capital of 200,000 people and the biggest city on Leyte Island.

On Samar Island, which is facing Tacloban, Leo Dacaynos of the provincial disaster offi ce said Sunday that 300 people were confi rmed dead in Basey town and another 2,000 are missing.

He said that the storm surge caused sea waters to rise 6 meters (20 feet) when Typhoon Haiyan hit Friday, before crossing to Tacloban.

There are still other towns on Samar that have not been reached, he said, and appealed for food and water. Power was knocked out and there was no cellphone signal, making communication pos-sible only by radio.

Reports from the other four islands were still coming in, so far with dozens of fatalities.

The typhoon barreled through six central Phil-ippine islands on Friday, wiping away buildings and leveling seaside homes with ferocious winds of 235 kilometers per hour (147 miles per hour) and gusts of 275 kph (170 mph). By those measure-ments, Haiyan would be comparable to a strong Category 4 hurricane in the U.S., and nearly in the top category, a 5.

It weakened Sunday to 166 kph (103 mph) with stronger gusts and was forecast to lose strength further when it hits northern Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa province early Monday morning.

In hardest-hit Tacloban, about 300-400 bodies have already been recovered but there are “still a lot under the debris,” Lim said. A mass burial was planned Sunday in Palo town near Tacloban.

Many corpses hung on tree branches, build-ings and sidewalks.

“On the way to the airport we saw many bod-ies along the street,” said Philippine-born Austra-lian Mila Ward, 53, who was waiting at the Ta-cloban airport to catch a military fl ight back to Manila.

“They were covered with just anything - tar-paulin, roofi ng sheets, cardboards,” she said. Asked how many, she said, “Well over 100 where we passed.”

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said a massive rescue operation was underway. “We expect a very high number of fatalities as well as injured,” Roxas said after visiting Tacloban on Saturday. “All systems, all vestiges of modern living - com-munications, power, water - all are down. Media is down, so there is no way to communicate with the people in a mass sort of way.” President Be-nigno Aquino III said the casualties “will be sub-stantially more” than the offi cial count of 151 - but gave no fi gure or estimate. He said the govern-ment’s priority was to restore power and commu-nications in isolated areas to allow for the deliv-ery of relief and medical assistance to victims.

The U.S. and other governments and agencies were mounting a major relief effort “because of the magnitude of the disaster,” said Philippine Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon.

CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports

from Beijing that two-and-a-half million people may now be in need of food aid, according to the United Nations World Food Programme.

Even by the standards of the Philippines, which is buffeted by many natural calamities - about 20 typhoons a year, earthquakes and vol-canic eruptions - the latest disaster shocked the impoverished nation of 96 million people. The airport in Tacloban, about 580 kilometers (360 miles) southeast of Manila, looked like a muddy wasteland of debris, with crumpled tin roofs and upturned cars. The airport tower’s glass windows were shattered, and air force helicopters were busy fl ying in and out at the start of relief oper-ations.

“The devastation is, I don’t have the words for it,” Roxas said. “It’s really horrifi c. It’s a great hu-man tragedy.”

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Aqui-no was “speechless” when he told him of the dev-astation the typhoon had wrought in Tacloban.

“I told him all systems are down,” Gazmin said. “There is no power, no water, nothing. People are

desperate. They’re looting.”The city’s two largest malls and groceries were

looted and the gasoline stations destroyed by the typhoon. Police were deployed to guard a fuel de-pot to prevent looting of fuel.

On Sunday, the city’s overwhelmed services were reinforced by 100 special police force units sent in from elsewhere to help restore peace and order. One Tacloban resident said he and others took refuge inside a parked Jeep to protect them-selves from the storm, but the vehicle was swept away by a surging wall of water.

“The water was as high as a coconut tree,” said 44-year-old Sandy Torotoro, a bicycle taxi driv-er who lives near the airport with his wife and 8-year-old daughter. “I got out of the Jeep and I was swept away by the rampaging water with logs, trees and our house, which was ripped off from its mooring.”

“When we were being swept by the water, many people were fl oating and raising their hands and yelling for help. But what can we do? We also needed to be helped,” Torotoro said.


WORLD NEWSObama says he is sorry Americans are losing insuranceWASHINGTON — Seeking to calm a growing fu-

ror, President Barack Obama said he’s sorry Americans are losing health insurance plans he repeat-edly said they could keep under his signature health care law. But the president stopped short of apologiz-ing for making those promises in the fi rst place.

“I am sorry that they are fi nding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me,” he said in an interview with NBC News.

Signaling possible tweaks to the law, Obama said his administration was working to close “some of the holes and gaps” that were causing millions of Americans to get cancellation letters. Offi cials said he was referring to fi xes the administration can make on its own, not legislative options some con-gressional lawmakers have proposed.

“We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them, and we are going to do ev-erything we can to deal with folks who fi nd them-selves in a tough position as a consequence of this,” Obama said.

The president’s apology comes as the White House tries to combat a cascade of troubles sur-rounding the rollout of the health care law often re-ferred to as “Obamacare.” The healthcare.gov web-site that was supposed to be an easy portal for Americans to purchase insurance has been riddled by technical issues. And with at least 3.5 million Americans receiving cancellation notices from their insurance companies, there’s new scrutiny aimed at the way the president tried to sell the law to the public in the fi rst place.

In Thursday’s interview, Obama took broader re-sponsibility for the health care woes than in his pre-

vious comments about the rollout, declaring that if the law isn’t working “it’s my job to get it fi xed.”

“When you’ve got a health care rollout that is as important to the country and to me as this is and it doesn’t work like a charm, that’s my fault,” he said.

Some Republicans, who remain fi erce opponents of the law three years after it won congressional ap-proval, appeared unmoved by Obama’s mea culpa.

“If the president is truly sorry for breaking his promises to the American people, he’ll do more than just issue a half-hearted apology on TV,” Sen-ate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.

In recent days, focus has intensifi ed on the presi-dent’s promise that Americans who liked their insur-ance coverage would be able to keep it. He repeated the line often, both as the bill was being debated in Congress and after it was signed into law.

But the health care law itself made that prom-ise almost impossible to keep. It mandated that in-

surance coverage must meet certain standards and that policies falling short of those standards would no longer be valid unless they were grandfathered, meaning some policies were always expected to dis-appear.

The White House says under those guidelines, fewer than 5 percent of Americans will have to change their coverage. But in a nation of more than 300 million people, 5 percent is about 15 million people.

Offi cials argue that those forced to change plans will end up with better coverage and that subsidies offered by the government will help offset any in-creased costs.

“We weren’t as clear as we needed to be in terms of the changes that were taking place,” Obama told NBC. “And I want to do everything we can to make sure that people are fi nding themselves in a good position, a better position than they were before this law happened.”

The president’s critics have accused him of mis-leading the public about changes that were com-ing under the law, which remains unpopular with many Americans.

Obama dismissed those accusations, insisting the White House was operating in “good faith.” He acknowledged that the administration “didn’t do a good enough job in terms of how we crafted the law” but did not specify what changes the adminis-tration might make.

The White House has not formally taken a po-sition on a variety of proposals from Congress to address issues that have arisen since the insurance sign-ups launched on Oct. 1.

UK SPY CHIEFS EMERGE FROM SHADOWS TO BLAST EDWARD SNOWDEN

Britain’s intelligence chiefs used their fi rst ever joint public appearance to complain that docu-

ments leaked by former U.S. intelligence operative Edward Snowden had put secret operations at risk and were being “lapped up” by al Qaeda.

In an unprecedented evidence session before parliamentarians that local media likened to a scene from a James Bond fi lm, the heads of Britain’s three main intelligence agencies said Snowden’s disclosures about mass surveillance had prompt-ed them to consider being more open about what they do.

But they said parts of their work had to remain secret for national security reasons and that the data leaks, which detailed Britain’s close coopera-tion with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), had caused huge damage.

“They’ve put our operations at risk,” John Saw-ers, the head of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service, told a parliamentary committee.

“It’s clear that our adversaries are rubbing their hands with glee, al Qaeda is lapping it up.”

The robust nature of his comments underlined how angry intelligence chiefs are about Snowden and what they believe is the irresponsible way some newspapers published his information de-spite warnings not to do so.

Civil liberties groups, parts of the media and law-

makers from all parties have argued that Snowden’s disclosures about the scale of government moni-toring shows it needs to be reined in and security agencies put under greater oversight.

Iain Lobban, the director of GCHQ, Britain’s electronic eavesdropping agency, told lawmakers that intelligence chiefs were “actively considering” whether more information should now be shared with the public.

But he argued that certain methods should re-main secret, citing what he said were specifi c ex-

amples where the Snowden data leaks had harmed national security.

“We have actually seen chat around specifi c terrorist groups who, even close to home, discuss how to avoid what they now perceive to be vul-nerable communications methods, or how to se-lect communications which they now perceive not to be exploitable,” he said.

Defending the use of electronic surveillance, he said GCHQ did not spend its time listening to the phone calls or reading the emails of most Britons, saying it would be illegal to do so and that it only acted in very specifi c cases.

The fact that the three intelligence chiefs even appeared in public - the head of MI5, Britain’s do-mestic security service, was also present - was a fi rst in Britain.

In the past, such hearings have been behind closed doors and it was not until 1992 that the name of the head of MI6, formally known as the Secret Intelligence Service, was publicly known.

Sawers, the current head of MI6, wore a green tie, a nod to a quirky tradition which means that the person doing his job writes in green ink and is known internally as “C”.

The hearing, which lasted about 90 minutes, was televised, albeit with a short delay for securi-ty reasons.

Yasser Arafat was poisoned with radioactive Polonium, says forensics reportA Swiss forensics investigation

claims that the former Palestin-ian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned with radioactive polonium, the TV channel Al Jazeera reported today.

In the 108-page report, the scien-tists say they found at least 18 times the normal levels of polonium in his rib, pelvis and in soil stained with his decaying organs.

The investigation, a year in the making, concludes that Arafat had ‘’unexpectedly high levels’’ of polo-nium and that ‘’the results moderate-ly support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poi-soning with polonium.’’

A Palestinian forensic investigator removed 20 specimens from Arafat’s grave in the West Bank city of Ramal-lah in November 2012. His body was reinterred the same day. The samples

from his corpse and grave were taken in front of three international teams.

Leading forensic pathologist Da-vid Barclay told Al Jazeera that ‘’if I was a judge and jury, this is absolutely stone-cold certain. This is beyond any doubt in my opinion that it was po-lonium that caused the death of Yass-er Arafat.”

Arafat’s medical records state that

he died in 2004 from a blood disorder that lead to a stroke. But eight years af-ter his death, an investigation by Al Ja-zeera in July 2012 called ‘’What Killed Arafat’’ revealed a rare, highly radioac-tive element on some of his personal items, including his clothes and tooth-brush. That prompted the new foren-sics testing. A Swiss lab in Lausanne tested these items, which contained Arafat’s blood, sweat, saliva and urine.

It was his widow, Suha Arafat, who asked the Palestinian Authority to ex-hume his body for further tests. She told Al Jazeera today that the results reveal “a real crime, a political assas-sination.”

“This has confi rmed all our doubts,” she added. “It is scientifi cal-ly proved that he didn’t die a natural death and we have scientifi c proof that this man was killed.”

However, the report has caveats. The Swiss investigators admit there are several critical problems with their investigation, namely that their fi ndings are based on limited sam-ples and that eight years had passed between his death and testing so the ‘’chain of custody’’ of some of the specimens was unclear.

There are also three separate par-allel investigations being conducted by French, Russian and Palestinian experts. Last month, one Russian of-fi cial said that no traces of polonium had been found. Vladimir Uiba, head of the Russian Federal Medico-Biolog-ical Agency, was quoted by the Inter-fax news agency as saying that Arafat “could not have been poisoned with polonium,” noting that tests carried out by Russian experts “found no trac-es of this substance.”

US President Barack Obama

Yasser Arafat

Andrew Parker the head of M15, John Sawers the head of M16 and Iain Lobban GCHQ director (L-R) are seen attending an

Intelligence and Security Committee hearing at Parliament, in this still image taken from video in London November 7, 2013.


WORLD NEWS

FDA, HOPING TO SAVE LIVES, MOVES TO BAN TRANS FAT

The FDA announcement Thursday that it was moving to eliminate added trans fat from pro-

cessed food means that microwave popcorn, fro-zen pizza, refrigerated dough, cookies and ready-to-use frostings are too much of a health risk. Yes, even that coffee creamer is trying to kill you.

The planned ban will also hit small restau-rant chains that use the oil to deep fry food and to improve the texture of foods.

Many scientists and health offi cials believe there is no safe amount of trans fat. Trans fats are produced when hydrogen is added to vege-table oil to make it more solid. The result, arti-fi cially hydrogenated oil, is a culprit in clogged arteries that eventually lead to heart attacks.

Recall earlier this year when the Center for Science in the Public Interest deemed Long John Silver’s Big Catch the worse meal in Amer-ica. The fried fi sh plate, with hush puppies and onion rings, had 33 grams of trans fat. The Amer-ican Heart Assn. recommends that people con-sume no more than about two grams of trans fat per day -- which could be found naturally in milk and meat. (Long John Silver’s announced in August that it would switch completely to non-trans fat oils by the end of the year.)

Additionally, trans fat is believed to raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol. FDA of-fi cials believe eliminating trans fat from the consummer’s reach could prevent thousands of

heart attacks and deaths each year.The ban, if approved, “could, in effect, mean

the end of artifi cial, industrially produced trans fat in foods,” said Dennis M. Keefe, director of the FDA’s offi ce of food additive safety, on the agency’s website.

Through the years, the FDA has found ways to get food manufacturers to stop using partial-ly hydrogenated oils. In 2006, companies were required to list artifi cial trans fats on all labels, inducing most manufacturers to stop using the ingredient.

Blood levels of trans fatty acids in white adults fell 58% from 2000 to 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

Pakistan frees Pervez Musharraf from house arrestPakistan’s former military rul-

er Pervez Musharraf has been released from house arrest and is free to move around the country, prison offi cials say.

It comes days after he was bailed over the 2007 army opera-tion to oust militants from Islam-abad’s Red Mosque - the last legal case against him.

But the former general remains on a government exit control list and cannot leave the country.

It is also unclear if he will leave the house because of threats to his life.

Mr Musharraf’s seven-month house arrest was unprecedented in a country which has been ruled by the military for more than half

of its history. Speaking on Monday, his law-

yer said Mr Musharraf had no in-tention of leaving Pakistan. He has consistently maintained that all the charges against him are po-litically motivated.

Prison offi cial Wajad Ali is quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying that pris-on guards were withdrawn on Wednesday night from Mr Musharraf’s villa on the outskirts of Islamabad.

On Monday the court approved bail in the case on condition Mr Musharraf paid bonds totalling $2,000 (£1,243).

The operation ordered by Mr Musharraf on the besieged Red

Mosque left a cleric and more than 100 others dead, and fuelled a deadly militant insurgency in-side Pakistan which rages to this day.

Earlier this year, he returned to Pakistan from self-imposed ex-ile to fi ght elections - which were won by Nawaz Sharif, the man

he ousted in his 1999 coup - but swiftly ran into trouble.

He was barred from running in the general election, and was placed under house arrest in April in the fi rst of a series of cases re-lating to his time in power from 1999-2008.

He faces murder trials over the assassination of former PM Bena-zir Bhutto and Baloch tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti. He has also been charged over his attempt to sack the higher judiciary in 2007 - he has been bailed in all three of those cases.

Separately, the Sharif govern-ment said in June that it planned to try him for treason - but a for-mal complaint in that case has still to be lodged.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford under mounting pressure to resign after

confessing to smoking crack cocaineToronto’s mayor has faced angry protesters - and

mounting calls to quit - as he arrived for work a day after he admitted smoking crack cocaine.

One of Mayor Rob Ford’s veteran policy aides resigned on Wednesday, the latest in a string of de-fections since May.

Meanwhile, even Mr Ford’s allies on the city council say they have lost confi dence in him.

Offi cials in Canada’s largest city cannot legally remove Mr Ford unless he is convicted of a crime.

More than 200 chanting demonstrators were gathered outside city hall as Mr Ford arrived for work shortly after midday on Wednesday. He en-tered his offi ce via a back stairway.

City Councillor James Pasternak says he and several colleagues are asking Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly to approach Mr Ford again about resigning, in the hopes of a “dignifi ed exit”.

Another councillor, Janet Davis, said the may-or had “stubbornly refused to listen to everyone across the city to step down”.

“The mayor has got to come to the conclusion himself that he has to step down,” she said on Wednesday.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has ex-pressed concern about Mr Ford’s personal issues, but she stopped short of calling on him to stand aside.

City Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who serves on Mr Ford’s executive council, is propos-

ing a motion asking Mr Ford to take a leave of ab-sence.

He says he knows it is a symbolic move, but “the right thing to do is for council to take a clear position”.

“I remain concerned that there’s more informa-tion that’s going to come out,” he told reporters. “I’m troubled by that and that it will hurt this city even further.”

On Wednesday, Canadian media reported that Brooks Barnett, a Ford police advisor, was no lon-ger on the mayor’s staff.

Mr Ford’s offi ce did not offer details other than to confi rm Mr Barnett’s departure.

After months of ducking the question, Mr Ford acknowledged on Tuesday for the fi rst time that

he had smoked crack “probably a year ago” while in a “drunken stupor”.

He said he was “embarrassed” by his behaviour, but vowed to run for re-election.

The mayor has not been charged, but city po-lice chief Bill Blair has said authorities are in pos-session of a video which apparently shows Mr Ford smoking crack.

Mr Blair has also said police are in possession of a second clip, but will not describe its contents.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford: “I was elected to do a job and that’s exactly what I’m going to contin-ue doing”

The allegations of drug use fi rst surfaced in May when journalists with the gossip website Gawker and the Toronto Star reported seeing the footage.

It is unclear when the video of Mr Ford - de-scribed by the Toronto Star as “clearly impaired” and “incoherent and rambling” before smoking from the pipe - was shot.

But it was recorded with a phone camera, sug-gesting it could not be more than a few years old. And in it Mr Ford expresses his distaste for Justin Trudeau, a young parliamentarian elevated to Lib-eral Party leader less than a month before reports of the video surfaced.

Just over 1% of all Canadians 15 years or old-er used crack cocaine in the past year, according to a Health Canada survey quoted by broadcast-er CBC.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford

Former Pakistan President Pevez Musharraf


WORLD NEWS

AMERICAN GIRLS KEEP HITTING PUBERTY EARLIER

Girls are developing breasts at young-er and younger ages, a new study

confi rms. And upward trends in child-hood obesity seem to be playing a ma-jor role.

Researchers found African American girls started getting breasts just before they turned nine, on average. Among white girls the average age was about nine and a half - a few months earlier than in the 1990s.

The fi ndings “confi rm an ongoing downward trend in pubertal timing among U.S. girls,” said Dr. Anders Juul.

“It’s been worrying for the U.S. as well as the rest of the world,” Juul said. He heads the Department of Growth and Reproduction at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, and wasn’t in-volved in the new report.

The data come from a long-term study of more than 1,200 girls in and around San Francisco, Cincinnati and New York City. Girls were enrolled in the study between ages six and eight and followed with annual or semi-an-nual visits.

At each visit, staff assessed breast de-velopment using Tanner stages, which measure how far along a young person is in puberty.

African American girls fi rst showed signs of breast development at eight years, 10 months, on average. That com-pared to nine years, four months among Hispanic girls and nine years, eight months among white and Asian girls.

For white girls, puberty hit about four months earlier than in a 1997 study that also measured breast development. That study concluded girls were enter-ing puberty earlier than in the past.

Heavier girls tended to start devel-oping at younger ages. Rising obesity rates seem to be a “prime driver” behind breast development starting earlier, Dr. Frank Biro and his colleagues wrote Monday in Pediatrics.

Still, Juul’s own work has suggested obesity isn’t behind earlier breast devel-opment among Danish girls.

Researchers said how much exercise girls get, diabetes precursors and chemi-cals in the environment that can mimic

hormones may all play a role in pushing up the onset of puberty.

“One of our challenges is going to be, there are literally hundreds of chemi-cals that could be candidates,” Biro said. He works in the adolescent medicine di-vision at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio.

Where girls live, meat and dairy in their diets and family stress have also been tied to earlier development, Mar-cia Herman-Giddens wrote in a com-mentary on the report. She studies ma-ternal and child health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The study didn’t look at when girls started getting their periods, or at other measures of puberty.

The researchers said maturing at a younger age could come with long-term risks for some girls.

For instance, those who hit puberty earlier could be at higher risk of breast and other cancers because their bodies spend more years making and being ex-posed to estrogen.

They also tend to start having sex

or using drugs and alcohol at younger ages and are more likely to become de-pressed or develop low self-esteem.

“You’ve got a 10-year-old who looks like a 14-year-old. We interact with kids based on the way that they look,” Biro said. “Kids interact with each other that way also.”

“One of the things the parents of these early maturing kids need to do is they need to monitor them more close-ly,” he told Reuters Health. That includes talking about sex earlier.

But Juul said parents shouldn’t be overly worried. The data about early pu-berty and problems down the line come from studies that asked women when they fi rst got their period, he said.

That typically happens two to four years after breasts start developing. And it’s unclear whether that age is dropping at the same pace as the age of breast de-velopment, Juul said.

“I think the scary part is not (for) the actual girl, because we don’t know what it means for her,” he told Reuters Health. “It is a warning that something is infl u-encing our child population and it calls for concern and continued studies.”

Chinese students flock to US exams to chase college dreams

Chinese students form the largest overseas group at U.S. universi-

ties and their numbers are rising as families spend a fortune in the quest for an American education to pry open the door to career and social success.

For some parents, overseas edu-cation is also seen as a way to avoid China’s fi ercely competitive national college entrance exam known as the “gaokao”, which is taken by millions of teenagers who see it as a make-or-break way to get ahead.

“We don’t know if it’s right or wrong,” said Zhao, a mother from the capital, Beijing, who wanted to be identifi ed only by her surname. “We just feel it’s better to get an ed-ucation in the United States than in China.”

The stress to get into university in China is severe but tighter job pros-pects for hordes of graduates are also causing anxiety as the world’s sec-ond-largest economy slows.

Nearly 7 million Chinese graduat-ed from university this year - a new record and a jump of 190,000 from last year. This has stepped up em-

ployment pressure, education au-thorities say.

To pursue his dream of going to a U.S. university, Li Shiyuan, 17, quit high school in May.

His parents had given him three options - stay in his home province of Shandong, where the college en-trance exams are very competitive, move to Tianjin, which has one of China’s highest acceptance rates for key universities, or study abroad.

He began in Beijing, by attend-ing three courses to train for tests re-quired by U.S. universities, including the SAT and the TOEFL English-lan-guage test.

This month, he sat the SAT exam for the second time in an effort to better his previous score and he plans to return to the Hong Kong test center in December.

“It’s much better than in high school, where teachers put too much pressure on us,” Li said.

His training for the exams has cost 100,000 yuan ($16,400), almost fi ve times the annual disposable income of the average Chinese city-dweller.

“As long as the family can afford

it, I would like my child to go abroad for university to learn some real stuff,” said lawyer Li Xuezong, who accompanied his son to Hong Kong.

Nearly 200,000 Chinese students were at U.S. universities in the 2011/12 academic year, almost double the number from India, the second-larg-est group of overseas students, the U.S.-based Institute of International Education says.

While most Chinese study at grad-uate level, the 2011/12 academic year saw a surge of nearly a third in un-dergraduates from China, to about 75,000, institute data shows.

SATs are available only at some in-ternational schools in China, where fees are out of reach for most fam-ilies. Hong Kong holds six SAT ses-sions a year.

Li Xuezong was one of hundreds of parents waiting patiently outside at Hong Kong’s AsiaWorld-Expo, the city’s biggest test center, where his son was among the 7,000 exam can-didates.

Situated conveniently next to the airport, AsiaWorld-Expo hosts about 60,000 SAT takers a year, more than

90 percent of them from mainland China, Chief Executive Allen Ha said.

Many students take the test more than once.

“Because our examination-ori-ented system doesn’t have many cri-teria to judge student performance, they focus on exams,” said Zong Wa, an offi cial of the government-linked China Education Association for In-ternational Exchange.

Studying abroad is an option mainly for the rich. Families typically save at least 1 million yuan ($164,000) for four years of college in America, but about 12 percent of China’s 1.35 billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day.

Zong said as many as 450,000 Chi-nese would go overseas for educa-tion this year, with the U.S. the most popular destination.

At the same time, the number of students taking China’s college en-trance exam dropped for the fi fth consecutive year.

“Students are asked to do tons of exercises during the last year of high school,” said Li Xuezong. “It affects their way of thinking.”

New part of knee joint discoveredTwo knee surgeons in Belgium say they have iden-

tifi ed a previously unfamiliar ligament in the hu-man knee.

Writing in the Journal of Anatomy, they suggest the fi brous band could play a part in one of the most common sports injuries worldwide.

Despite glimpses of the ligament in medical histo-ry, this is the fi rst time its structure and purpose have been so clearly established, they say.

But experts say more studies are needed to prove its relevance to knee surgery.

Four main ligaments - or thick fi brous bands - sur-round the knee joint, criss-crossing between the up-per and lower leg bones to provide stability and pre-vent excessive movement of our limbs.

But the anatomy of the knee remains complex, and several international groups have been exploring the less-defi ned structures of the joint for some time.

The notion of this particular ligament was fi rst made by French surgeon Paul Segond in 1879 but it has evaded defi nitive surgical classifi cation for many years.

Now building on the work of other surgeons, Dr Claes and Professor Johan Bellemans of the Universi-ty Hospitals of Leuven, Belgium, say they have close-ly mapped the band which runs from the outer side of the thigh bone to the shin bone.

And they say this anterolateral ligament could play an important protective role as we twist or change direction.

Mr Joel Melton, a consultant knee surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK, who was not involved in the research said: “If you look back through history there has been a veiled understand-ing that something is going on on that side of the knee but this work fi nally gives us a better under-standing.

“I think this is very exciting - there is no doubt they have hit upon a very important anatomical structure.”

The Belgian surgeons used macroscopic dissec-tion techniques to examine 41 donated knee joints and pinpointed this ligament in all but one speci-men.

And they say the presence of this band could help them better understand and treat a common sports injury that has puzzled doctors for some time - the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear.

An injury to the ACL is typical in people who piv-ot during sport - from athletes and basketball players and footballers and skiers. A tear can happen when you change direction rapidly or stop suddenly and causes pain, swelling and reduced movement in the knee.

But despite improvements in surgical techniques, between 10-20% of people with a repaired ACL tear are unable to recover fully.

In particular, some patients say their knees give way as they twist or turn.

Dr Claes and Bellemans think an injury to the an-terolateral ligament (ALL) may be partly responsible for this. They hypothesise some people may injure the ALL at same time as the ACL, leaving the knee less stable as the leg rotates.

And their biomechanical studies suggest tears in this ligament may also be to blame for small frac-tures that have previously been attributed to ACL in-juries.


BusinessAND

ECHNOLOGYTDazzling Twitter debut

sends stock soaring 73 pctNEW YORK — Shares of Twitter

went on sale to the public for the fi rst time Thursday, instantly leaping more than 70 percent above their of-fering price in a dazzling debut that ex-ceeded even Wall Street’s lofty hopes.

By the closing bell, the social net-work that reinvented global com-munication in 140-character bursts was valued at $31 billion — nearly as much as Yahoo Inc., an Internet icon from another era, and just below Kraft Foods, the grocery conglomerate founded more than a century ago.

The stock’s sizzling performance seemed to affi rm the bright pros-pects for Internet companies, espe-cially those focused on mobile users. And it could invite more entrepre-neurs to consider IPOs, which lost their luster after Facebook’s fi rst ap-pearance on the Nasdaq was marred by glitches.

In Silicon Valley, the IPO produced another crop of millionaires and bil-lionaires, some of whom are sure to fund a new generation of startups.

Twitter, which has never turned a profi t in the seven years since it was founded, worked hard to temper ex-pectations ahead of the IPO, but all that was swiftly forgotten when the market opened.

Still, most analysts don’t expect the company to be profi table until 2015. Investors will be watching closely to

see whether Twitter was worth the premium price.

Thursday’s stock surge was “really not as important as you might think,” said Kevin Landis, a portfolio manag-er with Firsthand Funds, which owns shares in Twitter. “What really matters is where the stock is going to be in six months, 12 months.”

The most anticipated initial public offering of the year was carefully or-chestrated to avoid the dysfunction that surrounded Facebook’s IPO.

Trading on the New York Stock Ex-change under the symbol “TWTR,” shares opened at $45.10, 73 percent above their initial offering price.

In the fi rst few hours, the stock jumped as high as $50.09. Most of those gains held throughout the day, with Twitter closing at $44.90, despite a broader market decline.

The narrow price range indicat-ed that people felt it was “pretty fair-ly priced,” said JJ Kinahan, chief strate-gist at TD Ameritrade.

The price spike “clearly shows that demand exceeds the supply of shares,” said Wedbush analyst Michael Pach-ter.

Twitter raised $1.8 billion Wednes-day night when it sold 70 million shares to select investors for $26 each. But the huge fi rst-day pop left some analysts wondering whether the com-pany could have raised more. Had

Twitter priced the stock at $30, for in-stance, the company would have tak-en away $2.1 billion. At $35, it would have reaped nearly $2.5 billion. That’s a lot for a company that’s never made a profi t and had revenue of just $317 million last year.

If the price stays this high, or goes even higher, shareholders will no doubt be happy. But the money that they might make from any stock sale doesn’t go to the company.

Named after the sound of a chirp-ing bird, Twitter’s origins date back to 2005, when creators Noah Glass and Evan Williams were trying to get peo-ple to sign up for Odeo, a podcasting service they created. Odeo didn’t make it.

By early 2006, Glass and fellow Odeo programmer Jack Dorsey began work on a new project: teaming with co-worker Christopher “Biz” Stone on a way to corral text messages typically sent over a phone.

It was Glass who came up with the original name Twttr. The two vowels were added later. The fi rst tweets were sent on March 21, 2006.

By 2007, Twitter was incorporat-ed with Dorsey as the original CEO and Williams as chairman. Dorsey and Williams would eventually swap roles. Both remain major sharehold-ers, though neither runs the compa-ny. Glass, meanwhile, was effective-

ly erased from Twitter’s history, writes New York Times reporter Nick Bilton in “Hatching Twitter: A true story of mon-ey, power, friendship, and betrayal.”

Since those early days, the site has attracted world leaders, religious fi g-ures and celebrities, along with CEOs, businesses and countless marketers and self-promoters.

The company avoided the trouble that plagued Facebook’s high-profi le debut, which suffered technical glitch-es that had lasting consequences. On that fi rst day, Facebook closed just 23 cents above its $38 IPO price and lat-er fell much lower. The stock needed more than a year to climb back above $38.

At its IPO price, Twitter was valued at roughly 28 times its projected 2013 revenue — $650 million based on its current growth rate. In comparison, Facebook trades at about 16 times its projected 2013 revenue, according to analyst forecasts from FactSet.

Google Inc. meanwhile, is trad-ing at about 7 times its net revenue, the fi gure Wall Street follows that ex-cludes ad commissions.

More than three-quarters of Twit-ter’s 232 million users are outside the U.S. But only 26 percent of Twitter’s revenue comes from abroad. The com-pany has said that it plans to hire more sales representatives in countries such as Australia, Brazil and Ireland.

LAST US BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO

RENTAL STORES TO CLOSE

The last 300 Blockbuster Video fi lm rental stores in the US are closing in the face of unrelenting com-

petition from online digital video, corporate parent company Dish Network has said.

About 2,800 people are expected to lose their jobs by early January.

The once-dominant chain fi led for bankrupt-cy, pummelled by Netfl ix’s DVD-by-post and online streaming services.

Dish Network, a satellite television provider, will also end Blockbuster’s own DVD-by-post service in December.

About 50 US stores that are operated as indepen-dent franchises will remain open.

“This is not an easy decision, yet consumer de-mand is clearly moving to digital distribution of vid-eo entertainment,” said Joseph Clayton, Dish presi-dent and chief executive offi cer, in a statement.

“Despite our closing of the physical distribution elements of the business, we continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital of-ferings.”

The fi rm’s UK division was sold to private equity fi rm Gordon Brothers Europe in March, two months after it went into administration.

But Blockbuster UK went back into administra-tion in late October, as Gordon Brothers said it was unable to broker a licensing deal with Dish to start a new digital platform for the brand.

The BBC has learned that Blockbuster’s UK online subscription service has been suspended.

Worldwide identity thieves steal millions in tax refunds

WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Ser-vice sent 655 tax refunds to a single ad-

dress in Kaunas, Lithuania -- failing to recognize that the refunds were likely part of an identity theft scheme. Another 343 tax refunds went to a single address in Shanghai, China.

Thousands more potentially fraudulent re-funds -- totaling millions of dollars -- went to places in Bulgaria, Ireland and Canada in 2011.

In all, a report from the Treasury Inspector Gen-eral for Tax Administration today found 1.5 million potentially fraudulent tax returns that went unde-tected by the IRS, costing taxpayers $3.2 billion.

Those numbers are from an audit of 2011 data, and the IRS said it’s put dozens of measures in place since then to crack down on the problem.

Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel acknowl-edges that “refund fraud caused by identity theft is one of the biggest challenges facing the IRS to-day.” Testifying to a congressional committee in August, he said the agency now has 3,000 em-ployees working on identity theft issues -- dou-ble what it had last year.

Here’s how stolen identity tax fraud typical-ly works: Thieves, using a valid social security number, fi le a tax return using fi ctitious with-holding forms showing that they’re due a refund, and have those refunds sent to another address. When the real taxpayer tries to fi le a return, the IRS rejects it.

But Treasury auditors have spotted a new wrinkle to this scam, in which the thieves don’t need social security numbers.

Instead, they apply for what’s known as an Individual Taxpayer Identifi cation Number, or ITIN. An ITIN looks like a Social Security num-ber, but it’s used by people -- usually legal and il-legal immigrants -- who aren’t eligible for a So-cial Security number. An ITIN looks like an SSN, but begins with a 9 and has a 7, 8 or 9 as its fourth digit.

So, for example, the auditors found that the IRS issued 1,947 ITINs to individuals at a single address in Mountlake Terrace, Wash. In 2011, the IRS sent 194 tax refunds totaling $ 554,866 to that same address -- for returns that should have raised red fl ags. ITIN fraud totaled $385 million in 2011, auditors said.

The IRS now automatically cancels ITINs af-ter fi ve years.

One reason this fraud happens is that the scammers fi le the returns even before the IRS re-ceives withholding statements directly from em-ployers and other sources of income. Fixing that problem would take an act of Congress giving the IRS quicker access to outside data, said Mi-chael E. McKenney, the inspector general’s top auditor, in the report.

In the meantime, the IRS said it has new identity theft screening filters and devel-oped more sophisticated data models to de-tect emerging fraud patterns. Since 2011, the IRS has stopped 12.6 million suspicious re-turns involving $40 billion in fraudulent re-funds, said spokeswoman Julianne Fisher Breitbeil.


BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

ECB CUTS RATES TO WARD

OFF DEFLATION RISK

The European Central Bank surprised markets Thurs-day by cutting interest rates to a record low, trying

to prevent the eurozone from sinking into a period of stagnation and defl ation.

Reducing interest rates for the second time this year, the central bank cut the main refi nancing rate to 0.25% from 0.5%.

ECB President Mario Draghi said the bank was ready to take further measures, including another rate cut, if Thursday’s move fails to have the desired effect.

A few economists had predicted the ECB would cut interest rates this month, after a surprise decline in in-fl ation. But most expected the central bank to wait un-til December, when it will have third-quarter GDP data to consider and a better idea of the trend in infl ation.

“By and large, we don’t see defl ation,” Draghi said, rejecting comparisons with Japan, which is just begin-ning to recover from years of falling prices. But he ac-knowledged a signifi cant change in the eurozone’s in-fl ation outlook in recent weeks.

Eurozone prices rose just 0.7% in October, after a 1.1% increase in September, with food prices and the cost of services coming under the most pressure.

Holger Schmieding at Berenberg bank said the ECB’s prediction that price rises would remain low for a prolonged period implied a risk of mild defl ation.

“To some extent, the ECB move today can be seen as taking out insurance against that hypothetical risk,” he said.

Eurozone unemployment is stuck at record lev-els above 12% and the economy is failing to generate momentum after emerging from recession earlier this year.

Unemployment won’t start falling until 2015 at the earliest, according to EU forecasts published this week. The European Commission trimmed its estimate of GDP growth next year to 1.1%, and said it was too early to declare an end to the region’s crisis.

Global food prices rise in October after five months of falls

Global food prices rose slightly in October after declining for the past fi ve months, the United

Nations food agency said on Thursday, forecasting more stability in markets as it raised its estimate for 2013/14 cereals output.

The rise in prices last month was fuelled by sug-ar costs, which increased due to concerns about har-vest delays in Brazil. Prices of wheat and edible oils also strengthened, the Food and Agriculture Organi-sation (FAO) said.

“Prices are settling around these levels,” FAO se-nior economist Abdolreza Abbassian told Reuters by telephone. “I do not see such sharp declines in pric-es in coming months as we have seen in the fi rst half of the year,” he said.

FAO’s index measuring monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sug-

ar, averaged 205.8 points in October, up 1.3 percent from September and hitting its highest level since July.

Food prices surged during the summer of 2012 due to a major drought in the United States but prospects for a rebound in cereal produc-tion to record levels have weighed on prices this year.

In its biannual Food Outlook report published on Thursday, FAO said food markets were becom-ing more balanced and less price volatile than in re-cent years thanks to bigger supplies and a recovery in inventories.

FAO raised its forecast for world cereal output in 2013/14 to 2.498 billion metric tons (2.7536 billion tons), about 10 million metric tons higher than its estimate in October.

It increased its estimate for world wheat output in 2013/14 to 708.5 million metric tons from a previ-ous forecast of 704.6 million metric tons.

World cereal stocks at the close of seasons end-ing in 2014 are now seen at 564 million metric tons, higher than a previous estimate of 559 million met-ric tons and up 13 percent from their opening levels.

FAO said it had revised its data for the food price index and had extended records back to 1961.

The revised index still shows a record peak was hit in February 2011, when high food prices helped drive the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.

In the summer of 2012 the index began surging to levels close to another peak seen in 2008, when several poor countries experienced riots, some of them deadly.

Royal Bank of Scotland to Pay $153.7 Million to Settle Mortgage Case

The Royal Bank of Scotland agreed on Thursday to pay the Securi-

ties and Exchange Commission $153.7 million to settle charges that it mis-led investors into buying a risky mort-gage-backed security offering, the lat-est move in a crackdown on mortgage practices that fueled the fi nancial crisis.

The S.E.C. concluded that a bank subsidiary, R.B.S. Securities, had backed the offering with loans that had a high potential to default. The subsidiary, called Greenwich Capital Markets at the time, bought the loans in 2007 from Option One Mortgage Corporation. Under its agreement with Option One, a subsidiary of H&R Block, R.B.S. had to buy the loans by April 30 of that year.

In its hurry to close the deal, R.B.S. did not fully investigate the quality of the underlying mortgages, the com-mission said. The bank hired an out-side company “to quickly conduct

due diligence on a small sample” of the loans, a review that concluded that “a large number” did not meet Option One’s own underwriting stan-dards, the commission said.

Even so, R.B.S. turned the loans into a $2.2 billion offering. It was paid $4.4 million for its underwriting work.

“In its rush to meet a deadline set by the seller of these loans, R.B.S. cut corners and failed to complete ade-quate due diligence, with predictable results,” George S. Canellos, co-direc-tor of the S.E.C.’s enforcement divi-sion, said in announcing the settle-ment on Thursday. “Today’s action punishes that misconduct and se-cures more than $150 million in relief for those harmed by this shoddy secu-ritization.”

Under the settlement, R.B.S., which has been largely backed by the British government since the fi nan-

cial crisis, did not admit or deny any wrongdoing. The S.E.C. will use the settlement money to help compen-sate investors.

In a statement, the bank said that it “has cooperated fully with the S.E.C. throughout the investigation.” It add-ed, “These payments are covered by provisions already made by R.B.S.”

The S.E.C. built its case around the bank’s disclosures to investors who bought the securities. It called those disclosures “misleading.” While R.B.S. said that the loans “generally” com-plied with Option One’s underwrit-ing guidelines, the S.E.C. said that the bank should have known that 30 per-cent of the loans “deviated so much from the lender’s underwriting guide-lines that they should have been kicked out of the offering entirely.”

According to the S.E.C. complaint, R.B.S. knew of problems with Option One’s underlying loans before the

bank bought them. Days before the acquisition closed, one of the lead bankers at R.B.S. cautioned in an in-ternal email that due diligence results on the quality of the loans had lately been “ugly.”

Last year, the S.E.C. settled a sep-arate case involving subprime mort-gages with Option One.

R.B.S. is the latest bank to come under fi re from the S.E.C. for mislead-ing investors about mortgage-backed securities before the crisis. Credit Su-isse and JPMorgan Chase have set-tled charges with the S.E.C., while the agency recently sued Bank of Ameri-ca in a mortgage-backed security case.

JPMorgan is preparing to pay $13 billion to the Justice Department and a number of other government agen-cies in connection with its own mort-gage-backed securities activities. The bank is still completing the settle-ment with the government.

RUSSIA FORECASTS LOSING GROUND IN GLOBAL ECONOMY BY 2030

Russia’s share of the world economy will proba-bly shrink during the next 20 years as growth

trails the global average, Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said.

Gross domestic product will rise at an average pace of 2.5 percent through 2030, less than the 3.4 percent to 3.5 percent global rate, according to the ministry’s updated forecasts. That would reduce Russia’s share of world economic output to 3.4 per-cent by 2030 from 4 percent last year, the minis-try said.

The muted outlook highlights the turnaround in fortune for the world’s biggest energy exporter, whose $2 trillion economy grew at an average an-nual rate of 7 percent during Vladimir Putin’s pres-idency from 2000 to 2008 before contracting 7.8 percent in 2009 after crude oil prices plunged. GDP growth decelerated every quarter since Putin won a third Kremlin term in March 2012, with senior offi cials including Prime Minister Dmitry Medve-dev warning Russia’s export-driven economic mod-el neared exhaustion.

“The upshot is that without a major shift in pol-icy we suspect that Russia will go from being one of the world’s fastest-growing economies to one of its biggest underperformers,” Neil Shearing, chief economist for emerging markets at Capital Eco-nomics Ltd. in London, said by e-mail. “Today’s forecast revisions suggest a grudging acceptance of this new reality among policy makers in Moscow.”

Russia, the world’s ninth-largest economy in dollar terms last year according to the World Bank, rode near-record oil prices to average an expan-sion of about 4 percent in 2010-2012 before growth stumbled this year.

Putin, whose time in power will match Sovi-et leader Leonid Brezhnev’s 18-year rule at the end of his current term in 2018, faces similar risks of stagnation that marked the decline of the Soviet

Union. Soviet nominal GDP reached $993 billion in

1983, the year after Brezhnev’s death, according to data compiled by the United Nations. That’s about 8.7 percent of global output at the time, accord-ing to World Bank data compiled by Bloomberg. The Soviet share fell to 3.5 percent in 1990, the data show.

The Russian republic declared sovereignty from the Soviet Union in June 1990, the fi rst of the Sovi-et states after the Baltics to do so. Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova followed, bringing about the dissolu-tion of a federation of almost 300 million inhabi-tants in 1991.

“The revisions made to the baseline scenario of Russia’s long-term economic growth make it more realistic,” Alexander Morozov, Moscow-based chief economist at HSBC Holdings Plc for Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Baltic countries, said by e-mail. “This scenario highlights the need for large-scale and broad improvements in business conditions and the investment climate in Russia, without which Russia will be losing its importance in the global economy and trade over time.”

With the economic growth forecast at no more than 2.5 percent in the next three to four years, bank lending and assets will grow 10 percent to 15 percent, central bank First Deputy Chairman Alex-ei Simanovsky told reporters in Moscow today.

Putin’s government is struggling to stem the worst economic slowdown since a 2009 recession. The central bank, where Ulyukayev served previ-ously as fi rst deputy chairman, has been reluctant to reduce interest rates because consumer-price growth has held above its target this year.

“We expect Russian growth over the forecast period to lag behind the global average,” Ulyuka-yev said.



SportsLOCAL

COMMONWEALTH GAMES HOLDS MEETING FOR VISIT OF QUEEN’S BATON RELAY

On Tuesday 5th November, at the Carambola Restaurant Providen-

ciales, the Commonwealth Games As-sociation hosted its fi rst meeting in preparation of the Queen’s Baton Re-lay that is scheduled to visit the Turks and Caicos Islands from April 15 to 17, 2014 on its epic journey of 71 countries of the Commonwealth over 248 days before concluding its journey at the 20th Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony in Glasgow, Scotland on the 23rd July, 2014.

The meeting was chaired by CGA’s President, Mrs. Rita Gardiner. In at-tendance were a cross - section of Stakeholders who are known to mo-tivate and bring persons together; to ensure a successful visit of the ba-ton and its accompanying guest as well as a wonderful experience for residents of the Turks and Caicos Islands, especially children. Grac-ing the meeting was His Excellen-

cy the Governor, Mr. Peter Becking-ham accompanied by his lovely wife Mrs. Jill Beckingham. The President welcomed them and expressed her gratitude in having them attend the meeting and lending their input and support which she deemed very in-spiring and encouraging.

The Queen’s Baton Relay is the world’s most engaging relay, a unique tradition of the games that unites the 2 billion citizens of the Commonwealth in a celebration of sport, diversity and peace, allowing each nation and terri-tory the opportunity to showcase its unique culture, hospitality and friend-liness of its people.

The offi cial launch of the Baton took place on the 9th October from Buckingham’s Palace where her Majes-ty Queen Elizabeth II placed her mes-sage to the Commonwealth into the Baton. We are honoured once again that we are included in this prestigious

journey. Organizers of the committee are planning exciting and spectacular activities over the 2 day period, show-

casing our most prized attributes, his-toric sites and the uniqueness of each island. It is the hope of the committee members that each child in the Turks and Caicos will experience the visit of the Queen’s Baton and have memories that will last a life time.

Committee Members includes: Chairman, David Bowen, Director of Culture; Assistant, Edgar Howell, Di-rector of Education; Secretary, Angela Forbes-Musgrove, Youth Activist; Gov-ernor’s Offi ce Liaison, Joanne Yeadon, Head of Governor’s Offi ce; Public Relations Offi cers, Cheryl Forman, Secretary General Commonwealth Games Association; Edith Skippings, President TCAAA. Other members in-clude representatives from the Tourist Board, Police Department and com-munity activist.

The President of the CGA is work-ing tirelessly with the organizing com-mittee to ensure its success.

The Women’s Football League (“WFL”) launched Speed Soccer for the fi rst time in Turks & Cai-

cos Islands on Sunday, November 3, 2013 at the TCI-FA Football Academy, where fi ve teams were intro-duced to the sport and had an opportunity to play several games. Speed Soccer is a fi ve aside game where each team is allowed a maximum of ten players. Games consists of two halves of ten min-utes each, with a two minute interval at half time.

Candace Hanchell, President of the WFL ex-plained that Speed Soccer has been introduced to encourage all females regardless of their age, fi tness level or football experience to become involved in what is considered the greatest sport. The Speed Soccer League has seen the return of several past players and also many new players.

The league’s fi rst offi cial game will be held Sun-day, November 10th, 2013 at the TCIFA football academy at 3:00p.m. There will be seven teams competing for the championship title of the fi rst Women’s Speed Soccer League. Spectators will wit-ness the following teams compete for this prestige title: CIBC Cats, Earthbenders AFC, Revolution FC, The Blow Pops, U12 Trailblazers FC, Trailblazers FC and Palmiss.

The general public is invited to attend all games which will run from November 10th to December 8th, 2013 when the fi nal games will be played and awards and prizes presented. There will also be various opportunities for spectators to win prizes over the upcoming weeks by way of participating in fun activities.

TCI Women in Sport formedIn an effort to promote Gender Equality in sports,

the Commonwealth Games Association part-nered with the Gender Affairs Unit to organize an initiative for women and girls of the Turks and Cai-cos Islands. After much consultation with sporting bodies, the fi rst, women, sport and physical activi-ty was established, named “ TCI Women in Sport”.

The launch of this most needed body took place on the 10th April, 2013 in Providenciales and in Grand Turk on the 11th April, 2013 by the Minis-ter of Education, Youth and Sports, Hon. Akeirra Missick.

The organization is a free-standing group with a cross section of women throughout the communi-ties of the TCI with interest in bringing about gen-der equality in all sectors of society as well as per-sons keen in sporting activities. This Association will help to identify and place women and girls in the various sporting bodies, and provide the re-

quired support to allow them to maximize their full potential.

WIS is presided over by Florence Bennett of Grand Turk and Edith Cox of Providenciales. This organization is affi liated with the Canadian Com-monwealth Games Association’s Women in Sports, who has landed support in getting the Association up and running. They have committed technical and human resources in the coming months.

The main objectives:1. to support and further develop the participa-

tion of girls and women in sport2. to increase the number of women in deci-

sion-making and in the administration of sports at all levels

3. to promote the involvement of female repre-sentatives in local, regional and internation-al events, conferences, seminars and work-shops

4. to establish ways and means to raise funds to assist women and girls in sport

5. establish a women and sport awards to high-light women’s achievements and contributions to sport in the country.

To this end, the WIS has established an an-nual Fund Raiser – a Gala Ball, with the fi rst one taking place on the 6th December, entitled, “Strength of a Woman,” under the patronage of

the Minister of Education, Youth and Sport, Hon.

Akeirra Missick, hosted at Yellowman and Son’s

Auditorium, Grand Turk at 8p.m. with music by

the Band Boys.

Tickets $80.00 couples and $45.00 singles. Tick-

ets will be available in Providenciales and Grand

Turk soon. Dress code: Formal.

The Association is encouraging persons to support

this venture that will benefi t our Youths in Sports

and physical activities.

Rita Gardiner

SPEED SOCCER LAUNCHED

Paula Garland is one of the participants in the Speed Soccer League

Ladies gearing up to take part in the Speed Soccer tournament


SportsCARIBBEAN

Andy Murray to headline Barbados dream cup tennis tournament

IDGETOWN, Barbados - Reigning Wimbledon cham-

pion Andy Murray will head-line Barbados’ Dream Cup opening next month.

Organisers say the Dream Cup, into its third year, was or-ganized to promote opportuni-ties for young, aspiring Barba-dians, through the creation of a world-class tennis event.

The November 28th to De-cember 1st tournament will be covered live by ESPN while the Trinidad based media part-ner Toute Bagai Publishing Company, producers of MACO publications will promote the event to neighboring islands and to the Diaspora through their travel portal macocarib-bean.com.

The 26-year-old Scot-tish-born Murray, who has agreed to be part of the 2013 event, has been playing for Britain since the age of 12 and is currently ranked number three in the world.

The last eighteen months has been his best, winning Gold at the 2012 Olympics fol-lowed by the 2012 US Open ob-taining the fi rst Grand Slam ti-tle for Britain in over 70 years.

In July, he went on to be-

come the fi rst British male to win the Wimbledon title since Fred Perry in 1936.

“Most Caribbean islands have not cultivated a tourism industry based beyond Sun, Sand and Sea. I fi rmly believe that we need to bring some sort of diversity to our tour-ism proposition such as these events,” said Managing Direc-tor of Toute Bagai publishing company Neysha Soodeen.

“MACO is thrilled to sup-port The Dream Cup as it has already partnered with the Barbados Tourism Authority to promote Barbados intra-re-gionally”.

Senior Business Develop-ment Manager of the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) Linda Christian-Clarke has described the Dream Cup as the realiza-tion of a dream for the BTA.

She said the fact that Bar-bados could attract sportsmen of the caliber of Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Almagro is truly extraordinary.

“The fact that ESPN3 and ESPN International are pro-viding live coverage and that Murray, the Wimbledon cham-pion, is going to be back in ac-tion for the fi rst time follow-ing his surgery, means that the eyes of the world will be on Barbados” she contended.

The BTA offi cial said it is also signifi cant that the nov-el prize offered – $ 500,000 US worth of beachfront ac-commodation for fi ve years at St. Peter’s Bay – gained accep-tance with these top class play-ers.

“It shows that Barbados re-mains very much a desirable destination for the rich and fa-mous and an aspirational one for all of our markets,” said Christian-Clarke.

“In particular, I would like to invite our Caribbean neigh-bours to share this great tennis tournament with us. It will probably be unlike any other spectacle of that sport ever in the region”.

FRASER-PRYCE CONFIRMED

ON SHORTLIST

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Jamaica’s triple World Championships gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fras-

er-Pryce was yesterday confi rmed as one of the three fi nal-ists for the IAAF Female Athlete of the Year.

A release from the IAAF listed the Moscow World Cham-pionships 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold medallist along with shot put champion Valerie Adams of New Zealand, and 400m hurdles champion Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic, as the fi nalists.

The winner will be chosen at the IAAF gala to be held November 16 in Monaco, along with the men’s champion.

Fraser-Pryce, who is seeking to join 1990 winner Mer-lene Ottey as the only Jamaican women to win the award, was a double Diamond League champion this past season, winning the 100 and 200m races.

Yesterday, four-time male champion Usain Bolt was shortlisted for the men’s title along with Great Britain’s middle distance World Championships double gold med-allist Mo Farah and Ukraine’s high jump champion Bohdan Bondarenko.

Bolt, who retained his 200m title in Moscow, while win-ning his second 100m title and anchored the men’s 4x100m team to gold, will be seeking his third-straight and fi fth ti-tle overall, after winning in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012.

The Council of the International Athletics Founda-tion will select the male and female winners, with the an-nouncement taking place live on stage at the gala.

According to the rules outlined by the IAAF, following the announcement of the 10 nominees a month ago, votes were tabulated to arrive at the top three.

Those eligible to vote are the international panel of ath-letics experts including representatives from all six conti-nental areas of the IAAF, World Athletics Family: IAAF & IAF Council Members; IAAF National Member Federations; IAAF Committee and Commission Members; IAAF Meeting Directors; IAAF Athlete Ambassadors; Athletes’ Represen-tatives; Top Athletes; Members of the International Press; IAAF Staff Members; and the IAAF’s

Usain Bolt wants to run under 19 seconds in the 200m

The fastest man on the planet, Us-ain Bolt of Jamaica, wants to keep

running and run the 200 metres in under 19 seconds and possibly as ear-ly as 2014.

Bolt, writing in his autobiography “Faster Than Lightning”, which went on bookshelves on Tuesday, said that achieving that landmark would mean having a ‘perfect’ season, simi-lar to his exploits in 2008.

The Jamaican speedster believes achieving that feat would mean more than winning medals at the next Olympic Games.

“Supposing I don’t make any quicker times in the 100, I would love to be able to run 18-something seconds in the 200, even if it was an 18.99 race. Forget making the next Olympics and the medals, break-ing that time would be an ever big-ger success. I’d love to crack it, know-ing that people were sitting in their homes and losing their minds at my achievement,” he wrote in his 291-page book.

“To reach that landmark pace, I would need to have the perfect sea-son, like the one I had in ’08. I think next year could be my shot at it, though the window of opportuni-ty is getting smaller with every cam-paign. The older I get, the narrower that window becomes; the harder

it is for me to reach peak fi tness in time for a major race.”

However, he said that given what he has done in the past, he is not ruling out rounding off his track ca-reer with another world record, not-ing that he is the only obstacle to his progress.

“I don’t think it’s totally out of reach in the next season or so. Se-riously, who would be surprised if I did it? Who’s going to stop me from going faster? The only man who can bring an end to my status as a star of track and fi eld in the next couple of years is me, and I’m a phenomenon, a serious competitor – a legend for my generation. Believe me, my time isn’t up just yet,” he warned.

In his full autobiography, Bolt tells his story in his own words – from humble beginnings in Jamaica, to in-ternational stardom including Olym-pic Games in Beijing and London.

Bolt became the fi rst man in Olym-pic history to win both the 100m and 200m in world record times in 2008, and etched his name in history four years later by becoming the fi rst man to win the sprint double at consecu-tive Olympic Games as well as setting three world records in a single Olym-pic Games.

There are doubts as to whether Bolt could repeat these performances

at the Rio Games in 2016. Bolt, for his part, is not too concerned about the huge challenge and expectation espe-cially with the new crop of young and talented sprinters in Jamaica.

He said that just the thought of try-ing to get to Brazil is already giving him the spark, despite his age.

“If there’s a possibility that I might make it, then I’m going to give it ev-erything I’ve got. I’ve talked to Coach (Glen Mills) about our chances, and we’ve discussed the situation sensi-bly by looking at some of the other athletes around us. I’ll be turning 30 when Brazil comes around.”

“Some guys in track and fi eld have run times of 9.80, 9.90 seconds at that age. If I take care of my body and if I

can push myself to the limits, then I don’t doubt my ability to make 9.60 seconds in 2016. The important thing for me is to land there and com-pete at a high level. At least then I’ll be able to say, ‘I attempted it, I got a silver, a bronze, whatever. I was in with a chance and I tried.’ Imagine if I managed to win gold, though. The parties in Rio would be off the scale,” he said.

He said that if he is not at the top of his game by 2016 then he wants to turn to another sport, preferably foot-ball.

For now, I want to run as fast as I can and be the best in the world. When I fi nish with track and fi eld I’ll change sports and move on. If I can’t race at the top level by 2016, then I want to turn my hand to another game – football, most probably, be-cause I can play, and with enough ef-fort I can get better.”

Authored by award-winning sport writer Matt Allen, the autobiography also acknowledged many of the peo-ple who have supported Bolt on his journey to stardom.

He cited the infl uence of Mills and former coaches Pablo McNeil and Fitz Coleman, his executive manager and long-time friend Nugent “NJ” Walker Jr, agent Ricky Simms and his manage-ment team including Norman Peart.

Usain Bolt

Andy Murray


SportsW RLD

Dolphins players defend Incognito, question Martin in bullying case

To the accompaniment of circus-like music, tur-moil surrounding the Miami Dolphins escalated

Wednesday as players rose to the locker room de-fense of teammate Richie Incognito and questioned the motives of his alleged harassment victim, fellow offensive lineman Jonathan Martin.

Martin, a second-year offensive tackle from Stan-ford, left the team last week amid allegations of bul-lying and racist and threatening emails from Incog-nito, a ninth-year offensive guard.

The Dolphins organization, after initially putting out a statement that nothing of the sort had gone on, ended up suspending Incognito, one of Miami’s most popular teammates.

“If you asked Jonathan Martin who his best friend is on this team two weeks ago, he’d say Richie Incognito,” quarterback Ryan Tannehill told news reporters Wednesday. “It’s tough for us to sit here and hear all that when we have each others’ backs.”

That’s what other teammates tried to do Wednes-day in support of Incognito.

“What’s perceived is that Richie is this psycho-path racist, and the reality is Richie was a pretty good teammate,” tackle Tyson Clabo told news re-porters. “I don’t know why (Martin is) doing this. And the only person who knows why is Jonathan Martin.”

Said wide receiver Brian Hartline: “If I’m not mistaken this is the same guy (Martin) that was laughing about this voicemail at one point in time.”

Martin’s representatives turned over to the Dol-phins and the NFL the voicemail from Incogni-to to Martin with the racially charged threats. The team has undertaken a review of what happened, as has the NFL, with Commissioner Roger Goodell appointing Ted Wells, a prominent New York-based criminal attorney, to direct an independent inquiry into the team’s workplace issues.

“Mr. Wells will conduct a thorough and objec-tive investigation. He will ensure that we have all the facts so that we can address the matter construc-tively,” Goodell said in a statement.

Dolphins coach Joe Philbin, who had seemed unaware of any brewing problems, said the team would take “all necessary measures” to fi x any prob-lem revealed by the investigations.

In Green Bay, where Philbin was a former Pack-ers assistant, head coach Mike McCarthy told news reporters: “I trust Joe Philbin with my children. That’s the highest compliment I can give a man.”

Martin has yet to talk publicly about the bully-ing he said he experienced, but his alma mater has come to his defense. “We’re proud of Jonathan,” is the tweet sent out today by Stanford football.

“He was a quiet guy. Never said much,” Tannehill said of Martin, one of his protectors on the offen-sive line. “He was the same guy every day. ... Tough to see warning signs.”

Many of the Dolphins players just fi nd it diffi cult to believe the harassment was so intense that Mar-tin felt he needed to leave.

“We joke with each other. You can’t have thin skin around here,” defensive tackle Randy Starks told news reporters. “We’re trying to clear Richie’s name. He’s getting a bad rap.”

DWIGHT HOWARD ROCKETS AHEAD;

‘IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, SO WHAT’

HOUSTON – Dwight How-ard won’t stand for any

bitterness from the Los Ange-les Lakers or fans who were displeased that he joined the Houston Rockets as a free agent this past summer.

“I made my decision,” Howard said. “I’m happy where I’m at. Everybody should move forward. This is my life. If you don’t like it, so what.”

Howard has said he sought happiness and a bet-ter chance for a champion-ship by going to Houston. Others say the perennial All-Star center also needed to be anywhere Kobe Bryant and Lakers coach Mike D’An-toni weren’t. Howard will face his old team Thursday night, a contest he is publicly downplaying as, “It’s another game.”

Bryant won’t have a role in Thursday’s outcome since he’s recovering from an Achil-les injury, but his presence dominates the discussion of Howard’s decision to leave Los Angeles.

Ex-Laker Antawn Jami-son says Howard didn’t re-turn to the Lakers in large part because of his issues with Bryant that began with the team’s early struggles last season. Bryant taking ex-ception to a shoulder inju-ry Howard had might have caused the biggest rift. How-

ard said he hasn’t talked to Bryant in a while. The in-jured Bryant wasn’t available for comment. “Dwight and Kobe just didn’t get along,” Jamison said. “There was no defi nite reason as to why they didn’t get along. They were just two different per-sonalities that couldn’t co-ex-ist. You know how aggressive and straight-forward Kobe is. He doesn’t stroke any egos. What you see with Kobe is what you get.

“They tried once it got started. Once we couldn’t get it going and started strug-gling, Dwight got hurt and Kobe said some things. I un-derstood what Kobe was try-ing to do because that’s Kobe. ‘Toughen it up.’ It just did the opposite with Dwight. The more and more we couldn’t put things together and try to get to that point of being the team we thought we could become, it got worse and worse.”

The Lakers’ Pau Gasol said Bryant and Howard’s drama

made a “rough” season more diffi cult.

“There was defi nitely a lack of understanding and connection,” Gasol said.

Howard admitted that he returned too early from back surgery by debuting at the beginning of last season. He also did not fi t well in the of-fense run by D’Antoni, who replaced Mike Brown early in the season. D’Antoni said, with a smile, that the Rockets use Howard similarly.

“It’s tough when you got three Hall of Famers on the fl oor at the same time,” D’An-toni said. “Too bad you’re not the No. 1 guy to go to.”

The Lakers’ hopes of re-signing Howard were doomed. Sources said that the Lakers’ brass told its em-ployees entering last season to make Howard feel spe-cial and important. He was offered marketing opportu-nities, special game access for friends and given his own private jet for Febru-ary’s All-Star Game in Hous-ton, sources said. The Lak-ers even went against their grain by putting up bill-boards that said, “Stay,” in Los Angeles when free agen-cy began.

“Even with everything they did, Dwight still felt un-dervalued by the Lakers, fans and the city of Los Angeles,” a source said.

Kobe Bryant paid $24M by LA Lakers

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant received

more than $24 million Fri-day as an advance on this season’s salary.

The amount represents 79.7 percent of the $30.5 mil-lion he is due to receive in compensation for the 2013-14 season.

While some players get paid every two weeks during the season, others get paid twice a month year round. A select few, including Bryant, receive lump-sum payments like the $24,363,044 he re-ceived Friday.

The league’s old collective bargaining agreement pro-vided that this up-front com-pensation could be up to 80 percent of the contract’s an-nual worth. That type of pay-ment plan was amended in the new CBA, but Bryant’s deal was grandfathered in. Instead, the new CBA allows provisions to pay a player as much as 25 percent up front.

Bryant’s total take home of the $24.3 million check is subject to heavy taxes, which could total as much as 55 per-cent of his salary. That would reduce his take-home pay to closer to $11 million, accord-ing to Robert Raiola, a certi-fi ed public accountant who heads up the sports and en-tertainment group at FMRTL in Cranford, N.J.

In his tax bracket, Bryant

is subject to paying a feder-al tax at the top rate of 39.6 percent, which would mean $9.6 million will be with-held by Uncle Sam. As a Cal-ifornia resident, he’s subject to paying an additional 13.3 percent, or $3.2 million, in state taxes. California has the highest state income tax in the United States. The Medi-care tax and surcharge would reduce his total take to about $10.9 million, Raiola said.

Bryant will pay so-called “jock taxes” to states in which he plays on the road. But those payments will be credited toward his Califor-nia income tax.

Bryant’s salary this sea-son is the second-largest sal-ary in NBA history, behind the $33.1 million Michael Jor-dan made in 1997-98.

Although Bryant is out in-defi nitely recovering from an Achilles tendon tear, his salary is fully guaranteed. The timetable for his return is unknown.

Richie Incognito, one of the Dolphin’s most popular team mates

Bryant’s salary is the second largest in NBA history after Michael Jordan

Dwight Howard


WORLD SPORTS

PGA and Players Championship purses raised to $10 million

The PGA Championship and The Players Championship will share

the distinction of having golf’s richest tournament next year by offering $10 million in prize money.

In a new spirit of cooperation, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and PGA of America President Ted Bish-op announced the purse increases Wednesday. That marks a 25 percent increase for the PGA Championship, making its purse the largest of the four majors. It was $8 million this year.

The Players Championship for years had the largest purse — $9.5 mil-lion this year.

The announcement at Sea Island was part of a new collaboration be-tween two groups that once were part of the same organization. Arnold

Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were large-ly responsible in 1968 for tournament players breaking away from the PGA of America because they felt it was more concerned with the club pro business.

Finchem said the idea was for them to work together toward a com-mon goal of growing the game.

He said the PGA Tour would run public service announcements during its televised events to highlight PGA of America programs such as “Get Golf Ready.” It also plans to feature PGA professionals in its weekly television shows and use PGA pros at tourna-ments to give clinics.

Bishop noted that Ryder Cup points are being awarded during the fall to honor the PGA Tour’s new wrap-around season.

“There’s probably never been a bet-ter time of collaboration and cooper-ation between our two organizations since the PGA Tour and PGA of America split back in 1968,” Bishop said. “I think that in a lot of ways, we’re just begin-ning to scratch the surface in ways that we can really impact the game positive-ly when we work together.”

It also could give the two organiza-tions a stronger voice over proposed rules changes.

Both of them were opposed to the ban on anchored putters earlier this year. The U.S. Golf Association and Roy-al & Ancient Golf Club eventually ap-proved a new rule banning the way long putters are anchored starting in 2016.

“I would hope that together we combine for a powerful voice in say-

ing that as changes are implemented in the future, they need to align with what’s positive for the growth of the game and the business of the game,” Bishop said.

Bishop argued that banning the way long putters are used will drive people away from golf.

Finchem said all golf organizations need to work together, understanding there will be disagreements.

“The fact that we didn’t agree on an issue this past year-and-a-half should not temper in any way our enthusiasm for collaboration,” Finchem said. “So we hadn’t really looked at it from that perspective of having a stronger posi-tion, because who knows? We may not agree ourselves on something like a rule.”

ROGER FEDERER DETERMINED TO BOUNCE BACK IN 2014 DESPITE FALL IN ATP WORLD RANKINGS

Many have asked why Roger Feder-er continues to tread the boards

when he has played all the great roles. As the owner of 17 grand slam titles, he has already delivered his defi nitive Hamlet, Macbeth and Henry V. Does

he really want to end his career as the second gravedigger, two or three years down the road?

But this question misunderstands Federer’s almost pathological self-be-lief, as well as his ability to see the upside of every challenge. For this fa-mously serene character is relishing the sense of being the scrapper for once. Everyone knows about his art-istry, poise and grace. But now, for the fi rst time, Federer is beginning to show his cussed side.

“I always knew that eventually

it’s going to be tougher,” Federer told Telegraph Sport. “You can’t just keep on playing, and keep on winning. And that’s why it’s been interesting for me myself to see how I would handle it, to take the bird’s view and see myself battling it.

“It’s actually been OK, it’s been a different process. I don’t want to say it’s fun in any way, but it’s refreshing in the sense that I never really had to deal with it to this extent.”

Federer is referring to the travails of a year that has seen him slip down

to No 7 in the rankings, the lowest po-sition he has occupied since 2002.

If his millions of fans were con-cerned about his early-season form, they were downright shocked by high-profi le defeats to Sergiy Stak-hovsky (the world No 116) and Tommy Robredo (in straight sets).

Yet Federer never lost his unique ability to turn a racket into a scalpel.

What he did mislay for a while was the physical freedom to wield the blade. His back tightened up through the summer months, so that he couldn’t train properly. Then, when it came to match day, he start-ed going for the miracle shot too ear-ly in the rally — a bad habit that has taken a while to erase.

Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell to cricket becomes an emotional overload in India

A kind of hysteria has engulfed Calcutta; a hun-gry, giddy, unctuous obsession which has run

through the city from north to south, from slum to opulence.

On Wednesday morning India and West Indies stride out at Eden Gardens for the fi rst of a two-Test series.

One of those 22 men, a little chap, stocky legged with cropped curls, will be the centre of rather more attention than the others.

He is Sachin Tendulkar and this is his 199th Test, his fi nal series, his penultimate match.

The greatest modern batsman, possibly the best since Don Bradman, nears the end of his road. Now 40, Tendulkar is ready for his retire-ment.

India may not be. The Bengal Cricket Association, handed the

golden goose of this Test at the last minute by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, has renamed the week.

This is no ordinary seven days in early Novem-ber, this is ‘Salute Sachin’ week.

The treasurer of the association has been quot-ed as saying: “There is no Diwali festival. This is Sachin Festival.”

All around the city, huge technicolour cut-outs of Tendulkar that dwarf the original are being ham-mered into place.

Two hundred giant screens have been set up for fans to watch the game live.

Two exhibitions of photographs of the little master have opened near the ground.

A special coin has been minted for the toss. On one side is a casting of Eden Gardens, on the other, Tendulkar’s face.

The match tickets have been specially made with a sketch of those cherubic features imprint-ed into the paper.

When Tendulkar turned up at Eden Gardens on Monday for his fi rst practice session, he was wel-comed by a 24-blast confetti and rose petal salute, to commemorate his 24-year career.

An applauding line of children wearing Ten-dulkar embossed T-shirts then lined his way to the dressing room, when he was met by a smiling life-size waxwork model of himself.

Tendulkar, a notoriously private man, if serenely patient, is said to be unamused by all the fuss.

But all this is nothing compared to the plans for the match itself – surely dreamt up by an offi cial emerging from a hallucinogenic afternoon.

The fi rst day’s ticket comes with a commemo-rative book. The 68,000 spectators will also each be given a mask of Tendulkar’s face to wear when watching the game.

On day two, spectators will fi nd placards by their seats, which, when held up together, form a mammoth Tendulkar head.

Day three, marginally less disturbingly, is the scheduled time for the release of 199 balloons print-ed with, you’ve guessed it.

Day four is a meet and greet with dignitaries and Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, and on day fi ve, the crowning glory of the operation, three two-seater aircraft will scatter 199kg of rose petals on to the ground.

At any given time the new album, We Miss You Sachin, by local artist Piloo Bhattacharya, will be played over the public address system.

Such is the BCA’s enthusiasm that small mis-takes have crept into the operation.

There was some embarrassment when the India captain M S Dhoni pointed out a spelling mistake in the huge poster plonked next to the electronic scoreboard which bears the line: “Celebrating Sa-chine Tendulkar.”

There have been complaints too, that only 5,000 tickets have been made available each day to the public, the rest have been given to VIPs, dignitaries, associations, ex-players and members.

What remains of that shy 16-year-old who fi rst walked out for India against Pakistan at Karachi, and made 15 before being bowled by Waqar Younis, no one knows.

Three years later, Tendulkar played one of the best innings of all time against Australia at the Waca and reminded the elderly Bradman of him-self.

He has won the World Cup, led his country 25 times, been part of the best Indian team in history. He has been a joy to watch.

But it has been nearly three years since he made a Test century – for him, and his dedicated follow-ers, there is no escape from the fi nger drumming of the hand of time.

In his fi nal Reith lecture, Grayson Perry quoted Jennifer Yane: “Art is spirituality in drag.”

This week, in Calcutta, substitute art for Ten-dulkar, and hope that both parties cope with the end that is fast approaching.

Tendulkar with wife Anjali, daughter Sara and son Arjun.

Roger Federer, regarded as the greatest tennis player of all time




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