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.
Castaway sues Princess Cruises over rescue failure
A Panamanian fisherman who survived 28 days adrift in the Pacific and watched two companions die is suing the owners of a cruise ship that sailed past.
Adrian Vasquez has filed a lawsuit in Florida alleging negligence by Princess Cruises, his lawyer said.
The American cruise company has said it deeply regrets that one of its ships sailed past the dying men.
Passengers said they spotted the castaways and alerted staff, but the firm said the captain was not informed.
Telescope
Mr Vasquez's lawyer, Edna Ramos, said the lawsuit includes testimony from two cruise ship passengers who said they saw the boat and reported it to a member of staff.
One passenger, Judy Meredith, earlier told reporters she had informed a sales representative about the boat and had shown him it through a spotting telescope.
She said she had been assured the information had been passed on to the crew.
Mr Vasquez and his friends set out in their three-metre-long open fishing boat the Fifty Cents from the port of Rio Hato in February, and were on their way back after their catch when the engine failed.
After 16 days adrift, he says, they saw a cruise ship sailing past, and had made attempts to flag it down with a red sweater.
"We felt happy, because we thought they were coming to rescue us," he said.
Mr Vasquez was eventually rescued 1,000km (620 miles) off the mainland, near the Galapagos Islands. His friends had already died of thirst.
He said he survived thanks to a sudden rainstorm that replenished his drinking water supplies.
Princess Cruises said there appeared to have been a "breakdown in communication".
It said the captain - Edward Perrin - and the officer of the watch were not notified.
Princess Cruises said it understood its responsibility under the law of the sea to help any vessel in distress, and said its ships had been involved in more than 30 rescues over the past decade.
Kamla unfazed
Political leaders of the Congress of the People (COP) and the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ)—two of the political parties that came together to form the People’s Partnership Government were absent from yesterday’s induction ceremony of the United National Congress national executive.
In spite of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s announcement that her Government is “intact” neither the leader of the COP, Prakash Ramadhar, nor the MSJ’s David Abdulah was present at the ceremony at Rienzi Complex, Couva. Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) political leader Ashworth Jack was out of the country.
The Prime Minister yesterday said she was not offended by the absence of the leaders because it was difficult to get a date convenient to all parties. While explaining that the TOP leader had to travel, the Prime Minister said Abdulah was engaged in his party’s committee meeting. But when Sunday Guardian contacted Abdulah he said otherwise.
“I did not know about that ceremony,” Abdulah told Sunday Guardian when contacted. The MSJ has called on the Prime Minister to address a number of national concerns. However, she did not mention Ramadhar, who was absent. Ramadhar was represented by COP secretary Jamal Mohammed who was the lone member from his party.
A newspaper advertisement on Friday published that leadership members were expected to address the ceremony. The COP has accused the UNC of poaching one of its members—San Fernando Mayor Marlene Coudray. In delivering the feature address, Persad-Bissessar urged members to defend the party and not take for granted their 2010 general election victory.
She said there were party deterrents who try to frustrate their every move by using political sycophants in critical positions to foil their progressive policies.
Jack: It is time to work
Meanwhile, chairman of the UNC Jack Warner said the PP must not take the electorate for granted. Indicating that the lead up to general elections is going to be challenging, Warner said: “The work this time will be more challenging. The focus to achieve has to be more austere.
The approach to ensure the readiness of the UNC to face any polls must be more strategic and there has to be a more expansive vision among all if we are to ensure that our ultimate mandate, which is to keep our party in power, is achieved.” Warner said with immediate effect a shadow MP would be placed in each of the 41 constituencies where the MP is not a member of the UNC.
49 bodies left on Mexico highway
Forty-nine bodies, at least some of them mutilated, were found today dumped on a highway connecting the northern Mexican metropolis of Monterrey to the US border, officials said.
A law enforcement official said the bodies of 43 men and six women were found in the town of San Juan on the non-toll highway to the border city of Reynosa at about 4 am (5 am EDT; 0900 GMT), but officials were still investigating.
Authorities closed off the highway, blocking the way for hundreds of motorists, as federal and state police, joined by Mexican troops, sealed off the scene.
The law enforcement official asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to release the information. The details, however, match reports in Mexican news media.
The discovery echoes several other recent cases in which drug gangs have left bodies scattered in public places as warnings to rivals. Thirty-five bodies were left at a freeway overpass in the city of Veracruz in September. Twenty-six were found in November in Guadalajara. So far this month, 23 bodies were found dumped or hanging in the city of Nuevo Laredo and 18 were found along a highway south of Guadalajara.
--AP
Haiti ‘ready for investment’, says new envoy to Canada
DESPITE Haiti’s past, the country’s first ambassador to Canada in nearly six years, Frantz Liautaud, has said his country is ready for international investment.
Liautaud, a former businessman and recent president of the Haitian-Canadian Chamber of Commerce, told reporters that many views about his country are obsolete and have held back the nation’s ability to wean itself off foreign aid.
“What we need to do is change our image and make sure people get the right image,” he said, adding that Haiti may have a willing partner in the Conservative Canadian government, which is expected to begin pumping tens of millions of dollars in aid for economic development.
Singer-turned-president Michel Martelly, who marks his first anniversary in office on Monday, had made the attraction of foreign investment a top priority, Liataud said, as a way to tackle a jobless rate of 40 per cent.
The new envoy said this involves promoting the country’s coastline as a tourist destination, as well as the opportunities available in farming and natural resources, among others.
“The Martelly government was clear from day one that for Haiti to get back into the position it should have in the region and in the world, we have to increase investment in Haiti,” said Liautaud.
Liautaud acknowledged concerns about risks to investment in Haiti, from security issues and a lack of trained workers to vulnerability to natural disasters and political instability, but said many are overstated.
He said security has improved significantly in recent years, adding that opportunities are available for those willing to invest.
-CMC