Cuba may lift travel restrictions
A high-ranking Cuban official has hinted that after fifty years of rigid control, the government may be on the verge of lifting many overseas travel restrictions.
Parliament Chief Ricardo Alarcon said a radical and profound change is weeks away.
It is being speculated that the much-hated exit visa could soon be a thing of the past, even if Raul Castro's government continues to limit the travel of doctors, scientists and others in sensitive positions to prevent a brain drain.
Other top officials have warned against over-optimism, leaving Cubans wondering how far the administration is willing to go.
In the past 18 months, President Castro has removed prohibitions on some private enterprise, legalised real estate and car sales, and allowed compatriots to hire employees.
European, US Markets Fall on Greek Uncertainty
European stock markets fell sharply Monday as traders voiced new concerns about political uncertainty in Greece and whether it could become the first country to drop out of the 17-nation euro currency union.
Stock indexes in London, Paris and Frankfurt all dropped about two percent, while major exchanges in New York were down a smaller amount in afternoon trading.
The value of the euro currency also fell below $1.29 for the first time in nearly four months.
One European market analyst, Theodore Krintas, said the inability of Greek political leaders to form a new government and the uncertainty of whether they will adhere to an austerity program to cut the country's deficit is leading to turmoil on financial markets.
“I believe that the markets would like the country to vote or actually to take on a new vision, a viable vision for the next 10 to 15 years. Markets are very comfortable with discounting the next 10 to 15 years and very, very uncomfortable with uncertainty and what we are feeding the markets, what Greece is feeding the markets the past one and a half years now is uncertainty and uncertainty only.”
European leaders pressured Greece to adhere to terms of the agreement they reached earlier this year calling for sharp social spending cuts, higher taxes and elimination of government jobs in exchange for approving the second international bailout for the country in the last two years.
As the finance chiefs of European governments gathered in Brussels for a meeting, their message for Athens was stern. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said Greece's continued role in the eurozone depended on it “complying with the rules of the game.”
The German finance ministry said the “only and right” position for Greece is to adhere to its pledge on austerity measures.
Fallout Begins from Big JPMorgan Chase Loss
The fallout has begun from a $2 billion financial trading loss at the U.S.-based JPMorgan Chase investment company.
The firm said Monday that Ina Drew, JPMorgan's chief investment officer and one of Wall Street's highest paid female executives, is retiring. The company paid her $29 million in the last two years for her profitable investment trading decisions.
But she is leaving after three decades at the firm in the aftermath of the loss in the company's London division that she headed. Other officials are rumored to be quitting. JPMorgan named Matt Zames, another of its officials, to replace Drew.
JPMorgan's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, has often lobbied U.S. government officials in Washington against tighter controls of complex financial transactions involving millions of dollars. But last week he said the transactions that resulted in the huge loss were “poorly reviewed, poorly executed and poorly monitored” by key company officials.
Blast Kills 9 in Afghan Market
Afghan officials say a bomb blast at a market in the country's north has killed nine people, including a local official.
Police say Monday's explosion struck a shop in the Ghormuch district of Faryab province. A council member was among those killed by the remote-controlled bomb.
It is unclear who was responsible for the attack, which came a day after a top peace negotiator was gunned down in the capital, Kabul. Arsala Rahmani was a senior member of Afghanistan's 70-member High Peace Council.
Hundreds of mourners attended Rahmani's funeral on Monday. A military honor guard carried the former high-ranking Taliban official's coffin to a cemetery in Kabul.
The insurgent group denied responsibility for Rahmani's assassination.
Afghan officials expect violence to increase as the insurgent group recently announced the start of its spring offensive.
Afghan forces are increasingly taking control of security, as international combat troops withdraw by a 2014 deadline.
On Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced the launch of the security transition's third of five phases.
Under the third phase, security control will be transferred from international to Afghan forces in all of Afghanistan's provincial capitals, and in all of Uruzgan, Kapisa and Parwan provinces.
President Karzai says after the phase is completed, 75 percent of the entire Afghan population will be under Afghan control.
POLICE LAUNCH MURDER INVESTIGATION
POLICE have launched a murder enquiry after the body of a man was found in Provo, earlier today (Sunday May 13).
The victim was discovered close to the beach at the bottom of Technology Drive near Heaving Down Rock.
The investigation is being headed by CID officers who are appealing for witnesses.
A police spokesman said: “The victim was last seen in a Grace Bay area at about 4.30am on Sunday. Officers then began investigating his whereabouts after receiving a missing persons report at 7.30am.
“The search was switched to the Technology Drive area after a resident called 911 just before 10am after discovering a vehicle parked near to beach.
“Officers searched the area and a body was located.”
The spokesman added: “We would like to speak to anyone who saw anything suspicious in the Technology Drive area earlier today, or to anyone who has any other information about the incident.”
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the police on 911 or Crimestoppers on 1-800-8477. Tips can also be left in English, French or Spanish at www.crimestoppers.tc or by becoming a friend of Crimestoppers TCI on Facebook. Crime prevention tips are also available by visiting www.tcipolice.tc
Jamaican banker paid $8 million in 'tainted' gifts
According to recently obtained Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) court documents, convicted Ponzi scheme operator, David Smith paid over $8 million in “tainted” gifts to politicians, political parties and government officials in Jamaica and the TCI.
In a Confiscation Order dated April 25, 2012, the TCI Supreme Court ruled that a number of payments made by Smith, a former banker in Jamaica, are “tainted and caught by” the Proceeds of Crime Ordinance 2007.
Payments made by Smith to political parties and individuals in Jamaica are recorded by the court as follows:
US$5 million to the Jamaica JLP Party
US$2 million to the Jamaica PNP Party
US$1 million to former prime minister of Jamaica, PJ Patterson
US$100,000 to an unnamed political candidate for Mandeville, Jamaica
US$50,000 to the former information minister in Jamaica, Daryl Vaz
US$190,000 to Dwaine Williams
The list of payments to recipients in the TCI is as follows:
US$20,000 to the former managing director of the Financial Services Commission, Neville Cadogan
US$25,000 to the Progressive National Party (PNP)
US$25,000 to former premier and leader of the PNP, Michael Misick
US$10,000 to former deputy premier and finance minister in the previous PNP government, Floyd Hall
US$10,000 to former PNP health minister Karen Delancey
US$10,000 to former deputy premier and PNP health and education minister Lillian Boyce
US$10,000 to former PNP natural resources minister McAllister Hanchell
US$25,000 to former PNP backbench member of parliament, Samuel Been
The total value of all of these gifts is included in a confiscation order totaling US$20,919,950.53 to be paid by Smith, and in default of such payment he is ordered to serve a term of imprisonment of eight years.
The larger part of the amount to be repaid by Smith is represented by assets acquired or owned by him, including $4 million worth of real estate in the TCI. In addition, the court order records almost $30 million held in various accounts with the TCI Bank, which is now in liquidation, of which only a small part will be recoverable as part of the liquidation process.
In the meantime, the revelation of the payments by Smith to Jamaican political interests has caused much controversy there, with the individuals concerned scrambling to explain the truth and the circumstances of the gifts in question.
In the TCI, the payment to Cadogan may prompt comparison to a similar situation in Antigua and Barbuda, where the former head of that country’s Financial Services Regulatory Commission, Leroy King, is one of four people accused of taking bribes to divert regulatory attention from the activities of another convicted Ponzi scheme operator, Allen Stanford.
After being sentenced to 30 years in prison in the US for money laundering and fraud, Smith was brought back to the Turks and Caicos Islands last September to finish serving a prior six-and-a-half-year sentence for similar offences in the TCI, which runs concurrently with the US sentence. Smith, who was residing in the TCI when he was arrested, was a close friend of former Premier Michael Misick, who publicly referred to him as a “model citizen”.
Marley movie doesn't resolve religion dilemma
THE new docufilm Marley has brought home an image of the late reggae great, Bob Marley, to a young generation who were probably finding it hard to understand what was so special about him and his music.
It presents Marley's life in the context of a society still struggling to define itself, politically, socially and economically, which should make it much easier for young people to digest the legend and assimilate the aura. However, there are basic issues which people who knew Marley well enough had hoped would have been resolved by this film but on which the movie failed to deliver.
The most profound goes to the root of the reggae superstar's religious identity, an issue very much complicated by Marley's baptism into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) months before his death on May 11, 1981.
A year before Abuna Yesehaq died, I was invited to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on Maxfield Avenue to speak with him.
Yesehaq (born Laike Maryam Mandefro in Adwa, Ethiopia, 1933), who was then Archbishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox (Tewahedo) Church in the Western hemisphere, welcomed me into the church hall and proceeded to explain the situation affecting its relationship with Rastafarians, especially Marley and late founding member of the Wailers Peter Tosh. He was so willing to talk non-stop it was as if he wanted to unload a whole lot off his chest.
I learnt that Marley's family was converted around 1972, but despite being continually under the spiritual guidance of the archbishop, he was not baptised until seven months before his death. I also learnt that he backed out three times from baptism before eventually yielding in 1981.
According to the archbishop, Marley backed out each time because of threats from other Rastas. When he was eventually baptised in New York, he was renamed Berhane Selassie, which means "light of the trinity".
It was hard to understand Marley being afraid. Certainly not the Marley whom I had interviewed at 56 Hope Road after the shooting incident which left him injured, and who later went to National Heroes Park and performed before the biggest crowd I have ever seen at a concert in Kingston.
But Archbishop Yesehaq feared attacks from Tosh and his goons, who had joined the church but left because they wanted the EOC to become a church for Rastafarians, and Ïthe Archbishop resisted. Maybe Marley did too.
Bishop Yesehaq died in December 2005 in Newark, New Jersey. But during my research, I came across a copy of Ian Boyne's Profile on the Internet on which the Archbishop made similar statements nearly 10 years earlier.
In that interview, Yehesaq confirmed that he had actually baptised Marley into the EOC in the singer's hotel room in New York seven months before his death from cancer.
"I did baptise Bob Marley in the presence of his wife and children, only the family, because he was not so willing to have it official, because it would have been difficult for him," he said.
"When I baptised him, he cried for almost half-an-hour. I baptised him seven months before he died... I knew him personally, long before I baptised him. Many times he was to be baptised but for various reasons he couldn't," he added.
The bishop also confirmed that he came to Jamaica in 1970, sent by Haile Selassie I, to establish the EOC in Jamaica and rationalise the existence of the church as a Christian church, as well as the fact that Selassie was a Christian baptised into the church.
But, in his anxiety to get the church going, Yesehaq baptised thousands of Rastafarians into the congregation.
"As a matter of fact, between 1970 and 1978, about 20,000 persons were baptised," he told Boyne. However, he admitted that this would later create problems for him and the church.
"Afterwards there was a lot of disappointment, because so many Rastafarians expected that the church would have embraced their ideology. It was difficult for me. Although I wanted them to be in the church, and I would not tell them their beliefs because every man is free to believe and worship the way they want to... but as a member of the church, you must follow the teachings and doctrines of the church," Yesehaq explained in his broken English.
Asked about the church's view of Haile Selassie, he said, "To the Ethiopians and the EOC he is not God. He was a member of the EOC and a defender of the EOC.
Many Rastas believe in the divinity of Selassie.
Yesehaq admitted that most of the Rastafarians who had entered the church left and joined other organisations more sympathetic to their view of Haile Selassie.
But Marley stayed close to Yesehaq, with whom he had a very good relationship up to the time of his death. Yesehaq even advised him to accept the church's belief in monogamous relationships (a strict EOC principle), an advice he said Marley accepted but obviously never practised.
He said Marley never mentioned Haile Selassie as God in his presence.
He always asked me who is Christ, and I would tell him Christ is the one who was crucified... He was very diplomatic... he had great respect for me," the archbishop said.
Source: jamaicaobserver
Kim Kardashian to Get a Sitcom and Run for Mayor of Glendale, CA?
Believe it or not, Kim Kardarshian is attempting to actually do something for her money. The reality television star is trying her hand at comedy.
The beauty is in the beginning stages of getting the project off the ground, along with renewing the family’s contract with E! for three more seasons of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
“Kim wants to move beyond reality TV and become a comedy actress,” says a source. “She really wants to be the next Sofia Vergara.”
Indeed her desire to upgrade into a real acting position has been noticed with an appearance on NBC’s “30 Rock.
She may have plans in the future in politics.
The 31 year old even said that maybe one day she’d run for mayor of her hometown of Glendale, California. She might be headed in that direction since she attended the White House Correspondents Dinner.
“I’m thinking about it,” Kim said about running for mayor. “I always set my goals really high, so stay tuned.”
Stevie Wonder Victim of ‘Incest’ Extortion Attempt by ‘Son-Nephew’
Sometimes your biggest enemies are family members or so-called family members.
That’s the situation superstar Stevie Wonder finds himself in after a man claiming to be his nephew has been charged with attempting to extort him by threatening to go to the tabloids and say he’s the product of an incestuous relationship between Wonder and Wonder’s sister unless the singer gave up some big bucks, reports TMZ.
Alpha Lorenzo Walker was arrested May 2 after being trapped in a sting operation. Law enforcement sources tell us Walker initially demanded $5 million from Stevie but was shut down and eventually lowered his demand to $10,000.
Our sources say undercover cops met Walker, claiming to be Stevie’s reps who had the cash, but demanded that he first sign a document which included a statement that his accusations were false. Walker signed, and he was promptly arrested.
Our sources say the incest allegation is completely bogus.
Walker has been charged with felony extortion, along with his girlfriend, Tamara Eileen Diaz.
Walker remains jailed in Los Angeles without bail because of another court case. Diaz is being held on $95,000 bail, according to the AP.
Mase Asks Saints to Pray for Him as He Goes Back to Hip Hop
From rapper to pastor, back to rapper, Mase has gone through some changes. But he regrets making his way to the pulpit.
He retired from the hip hop industry 13 years ago to preach the gospel and eased his way back.
Also known as Mason Betha, the 34 year old shared on a TBN interview that some were worried about him going back to rap, afraid his commitment to the church would waiver.
“Why is it Christians are more confident in the Devil taking me more than Christ keeping me,” Betha questions. “What I have inside of me is more powerful than anything the world could ever offer me.”
Instead of going the entrepreneurial route, Mase went Christian and opened up El Elyon International Church and Mason Betha Ministries in Atlanta.
Despite his success, he said in an interview last month that he regrets making such a sudden transition.
“I didn’t give myself any room to grow, I went from one extreme to another extreme, I was just so gung ho about what I was learning, that’s all I wanted.
“I went so hard in one direction that people had things to say and rightfully so,” Betha said. “I don’t blame them for that [but] it’s been 13 years, let’s move on.”
All he’s asking of his fans and fellow worshippers is a word of prayer as he ventures back into a seemingly godless world.