Coast Guard intercepts 30th drug sub in Caribbean waters
The United States Coast Guard has intercepted its 30th drug semi-submersible in Caribbean waters in less than six years, the agency said on Wednesday.
The Coast Guard said that two of its cutters, the Decisive and Pea Island, chased down a drug submarine on March 30 in the Western Caribbean with aid from the Honduran Navy.
It said the bow of the sub was painted with shark’s teeth as it disappeared beneath the surface.
The Coast Guard said the suspected smugglers on board scuttled the cramped craft before they were taken into custody, sending their suspicious load into “thousands of feet of water” about 150 nautical miles (277.8 kilometres) north of Honduras.
The Coast Guard estimated that the submarine was carrying several tons of drugs.
It said federal authorities kept the interdiction secret until the four smuggling suspects captured at the time were brought ashore to face charges at the US District Court in Miami. The Coast Guard did not release their identities or nationalities.
Until this latest episode, the Coast Guard said it had stopped or sunk a total of 29 of the low-tech stealth vessels — 25 in the eastern Pacific and four in the Caribbean.
In the first four Caribbean cases, the Coast Guard said the crews scuttled their craft in shallow enough water that US law enforcement divers recovered packages of cocaine estimated to value 699 million US dollars.
In one case, the Coast Guard said it turned to an elite FBI underwater evidence recovery team from Quantico, Virginia to bring up the sealed bricks of cocaine to make sure that no criminals could retrieve the haul.
Since then, US officials calculate that they have interdicted about 200 tonnes of cocaine valued at 5.3 billion dollars.
Antigua Observer
Barbados to answer charges against Jamaican woman
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has given Jamaican Shanique Myrie permission to begin proceedings against the Barbados government following an encounter with a Barbadian Immigration Officer last year.
It was on March 14 last year that Ms. Myrie alleged that she was subjected to a painful cavity search by an immigration officer just after her arrival at the Grantley Adams International Airport, where she was insulted and later denied entry to the country.
When the matter was called before the CCJ headed by Sir Dennis Byron, and convened in Barbados on Wednesday, Ms. Myrie and and her legal team were given 21 days to file the necessary documents to bring the case against Barbados.
Ms. Myrie, represented by the legal team led by Michelle Browne, is charging that her rights as a CARICOM citizen were abused after she was denied entry and discriminated against because she was a Jamaican.
According to reports she also wants the court to decide if she was given the minimum standard of treatment due to CARICOM nationals moving within the region under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME).
During her arguments, Ms. Brown indicated that her client was subjected to “forceful brutish language” by immigration officials at the GAIA on her arrival. The attorney also contended that Ms. Myrie was threatened with imprisonment and forced to hold over while a cavity search was conducted on her.
“She has suffered direct and indirect discrimination,” Ms. Brown said while describing the decision of immigration officials as arbitrary and unjustifiable.
The attorney told the court during the sitting which was streamed live on the Internet, that her client arrived in Barbados and gave the name of the person who she intended to stay with during her visit to the island, and indicated that she had sufficient funds for her planned one-month stay.
She added that there was no justification for the level of intrusion faced by Ms Myrie, especially as it was initially claimed that she was a victim of human trafficking. Ms. Browne told the packed courtroom that it was government’s role to protect the Jamaican woman and not brutalise her.
“They searched every place they could have searched, and they found nothing,” she said. She added: “It was illegal, it was vulgar. The applicant is still not sure what it is she has done wrong,” the attorney said.
Queen’s Counsel Roger Forde, appearing on behalf of the Barbados government, responded to the arguments.
The case will likely be heard in July or August in either Trinidad or Barbados by the five-member CCJ panel that was established in 2001.
Caribbean 360 News
Guyana latest CARICOM country to sign ILO Decent Work project
Guyana has become the 10th Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to sign the International Labour Organization-supported Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP).
A statement from the Trinidad-based ILO Office for the Caribbean, said Georgetown, which signed the accord on Wednesday, joins the Bahamas, Belize, and the seven member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
Labour Minister Nanda K. Gopaul signed the agreement in the presence of ILO, employers and trade union stakeholders.
“The Decent Work Country Programme is the mechanism through which the ILO supports the efforts of governments, employers and workers organizations in anchoring the goal of decent work in national development policies, programmes and strategies,” the ILO said.
It focuses on ways in which creating jobs, while promoting respect for rights, social protection and social dialogue, can be made central to social and economic development.
Gopaul said that the government is committed to working with the several social partners signing on to the document.
“Dealing with labour issues is not an easy job so this piece of document will indeed be a great help to the sector. This is not the first time the ILO has helped Guyana in developing legislation and, for this we are grateful for the guidance and technical support,” Gopaul said.
He said the ruling Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration is committed to pursuing fair and equitable practices in the labour sector as they continue to help employers to create a safe and fair environment for employees.
Gopaul said the government will continue to create a favourable environment for investors and, thus create more jobs for its populace. He said the Ministry of Labour will be investing the necessary resources in training its staff to execute the document in a professional and effective manner.
Officer-in-Charge, ILO Decent Work Team for the Caribbean, Dr. Giovanni di Cola, said the ILO will continue to provide support to both the government and the social partners particularly in: the creation of green jobs and decent work; the enhancement of technical and vocational education and training as well as the promotion of entrepreneurship education and training.
The priorities for the DWCP follow three key national development frameworks: the National Development Strategy (2000-2012), the Poverty Reduction Strategy (2001), and the Low-Carbon Development Strategy (2009), officials said.
Antigua Observer
The OAS will help the Dominican Government control gun smuggling
The Organization of American States (OAS) will help the Dominican Government’s ability to control gun smuggling, through the program “Promotion of Firearms Marking in Latin America and the Caribbean” announced Friday.
“The traffic of firearms is one of the main current problems because it’s directly associated with organized crime,” said OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza agreement.
The content of the agreement signed Friday afternoon during a ceremony in the OAS offices in Washington DC, will be disclosed today.
Insulza said most weapons “are dealt illegally throughout the region, for which it’s very important to combat their illicit traffic and to mark them so that their whereabouts can be traced.”
The agreement forms part of the Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms (CIFTA), the first binding international instrument in the matter.
Via agreement, the OAS will provide the Dominican Republic a machine to mark firearms, which was donated by Washington.
Haiti: An advisor to President Martelly accused of murder
The family members of Octanol Dérissaint, a resident of the border area of Fond Parisien (west), have accused an advisor to President Michel Martelly, Calixte Valentin, of having murdered Wednesday night that 32 year old salesman during an altercation with almost swamp the entire community section.
Denouncing in Radio Kiskeya studios what they called a heinous crime, the victim's relatives demand that the alleged murderer to be brought before the competent judicial authorities and call the head of state to remove him without delay from his staff.
And therefore rejecting the hypothesis of a reckoning between the two men, the family of Octanol Dérissaint emphasizes that there was no relationship between the deceased and the advisor to the Presidency.
Shot in the head, the vendor, who sold food at the Haitian-Dominican border left behind two children including a baby of three months.
For his part, Sanozier Francis, MP for Verrettes-Ganthier constituency, of which depends Fond Parisien, condemned the murder and demanded justice for the victim. He argues that judiciary must put the alleged offender out of harm's way.
Deeply outraged after the incident, many residents of Fond Parisien had threatened to burn down the village if Calixte Valentin was not sent behind bars.
If the story as presented is confirmed, the case could become a new blast for Martelly’s administration already entangled in a series of scandals.
Colombia scandal claims three more Secret Service jobs
The US Secret Service has said three more employees are resigning over the prostitution scandal that overshadowed a summit in Colombia last weekend.
Supervisors David Chaney and Greg Stokes are among three agents already leaving the elite agency in the wake of the affair.
US President Barack Obama was briefed on Friday by Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan about the scandal.
It broke as the president arrived for last weekend's Summit of the Americas.
A 12th Secret Service employee was placed on administrative leave amid the investigation on Friday.
The scandal broke when a dispute between an escort and an agent spilled into the hallway of a beachfront hotel.
Up to 20 women were involved in the antics in the city of Cartagena.
A 24-year-old Colombian single mother told the New York Times on Wednesday that an agent had agreed to pay her $800 (£500) for sex, but offered her only $30 the next morning.
Mr Chaney, 48, who was in the international programmes division, will be allowed to retire, but Mr Stokes, an assistant special agent in charge of the K9 division, has been told he will be fired, US media report. A third unnamed employee resigned over the allegations.
Lawrence Berger, a lawyer for Mr Chaney and Mr Stokes, told AP on Friday: "Nothing that has been reported in the press in any way negatively or adversely impacted the mission of that agency or the safety of the president of the United States."
Lawmakers on a congressional panel investigating the scandal had earlier warned more agents would lose their jobs.
Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told Reuters news agency: "It would not surprise me if there were within the next few days additional resignations or firings."
A photo on Mr Chaney's Facebook page showed him near Sarah Palin while on her security detail during the former Alaska governor's 2008 vice-presidential run.
A comment apparently posted by him on the page said: "I was really checking her out, if you know what i mean?"
Mrs Palin took to Fox News on Thursday to respond.
"This agent who was kind of ridiculous there in posting pictures and comments about checking someone out," she said. "Check this out, bodyguard: you're fired! And I hope his wife sends him to the doghouse."
Eleven military members who were supporting the Secret Service in Colombia are also under investigation: six from the Army, one from the Air Force and two each from the Marines and Navy.
ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING UPDATE
His Excellency the Governor confirmed that his next quarterly report of progress against each of the Interim Administration’s milestones will be published in early May at today’s Advisory Council (AC) meeting in Grand Turk, Wed, 18 Apr 2012.
As part of his personal commitment to speaking directly to the people of Turks and Caicos, Governor Todd will again hold public meetings on each of the inhabited family islands during May to provide locals with an opportunity to hear from him and to raise their issues directly.
Following his previous round of public meetings, for example, The Governor was able to accelerate the start of repair works on the Caicos Causeway after the people of North and Middle Ciacos expressed their concerns to him earlier this year.
Other matters discussed at this morning’s AC meeting included:
An update on the Consultative Forum led public consultation on acquisition of TCI Islander status:
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- The AC was told that the Consultative Forum has reviewed the views offered through the extensive public consultation, and confirmed the main messages received. These messages will now inform a revised legal framework to be ready by summer 2012, to allow this milestone to be met too.
- This will form part of the ongoing change and reform programme in the Ministry of Border Control and Labour, supported by technical assistance resources from the UK, to strengthen the border, improve enforcement, to deliver effective employment services, streamlined case management, and to ensure robust delivery of identity, permanent status and citizenship documents.
- An update of the fee structure payable by companies in the telecommunications sector, such as broadcasters and mobile phone network providers, was also approved. This structure had not been updated since 2007.
- The AC was introduced to both the Employment Bill 2012 and the Health Regulation Bill. These will be discussed in greater detail at the next meeting.
- The Employment Bill seeks to remedy the deficiencies of the 2004 Ordinance which contains a number of defects in relation to the content of the law and how the law is expressed, which have led to frequent litigation and adverse comments from the Courts.
- The Health Regulation Bill which would see a Health Regulation Agency set up to regulate health facilities and a Health Profession Board to regulate individual health professionals. The Bill would establish, for the first time in the Turks and Caicos, a mechanism whereby members of the public can bring complaints of negligence or improper conduct against medical practitioners and be entitled to some form of redress due to the disciplinary powers given to the Health Professions Board.
UK offers £10bn loan to the IMF
The IMF says it has received firm commitments of more than $430bn.
The money is to help economies in trouble and includes just under £10bn ($15bn) from the UK in loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It is part of a global effort to bolster the fund's lending capacity, which IMF managing director Christine Lagarde wanted to increase by $400bn.
The money doubles the fund's firepower which threatened to become overwhelmed by the eurozone crisis.
Australia will contribute $7bn, Singapore $4bn and the Republic of Korea $15bn.
The IMF's managing director, Christine Lagarde, said that some countries including Russia, India, China and Brazil had made private pledges but did not want to go public until they had discussed the pledges back home.
In a joint statement following the meeting in Washington, the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) and the G20 finance ministers and Central Bank governors said: "There are firm commitments to increase resources made available to the IMF by over $400bn in addition to the quota increase under the 2010 reform."
"These resources will be available for the whole membership of the IMF, and not earmarked for any particular region."
The eurozone as a whole is contributing $200bn of the total and Japan is another major supplier of funds and is lending $60bn.
Interest
UK Chancellor George Osborne said the loan was important to the UK: "It's in Britain's interest that we have a stable and strong world economy - that creates jobs in Britain."
He added that any loan made would bring in a return in the form of interest.
He can lend up to £10bn without parliamentary approval. He had some room for manoeuvre because parliament has previously approved £40bn of loans, of which only £30bn has been committed.
But this latest pledge is unpopular with some members of Mr Osborne's Conservative Party, who had been urging him not to sign up to an increase.
Backbench MP Peter Bone described the decision as "bonkers", describing any efforts to prop up the eurozone as a waste of time.
The UK's shadow chancellor, Ed Balls said: "The IMF cannot and should not become the de facto central bank of the euro area.
"The IMF is being put up to step in and play the role that the European Central Bank should be playing - a strategy which cannot work and is self-defeating by highlighting the lack of a proper ECB firewall."
The UK Treasury pointed out that no country has ever lost money lending to the IMF in its 67-year history.
It says its contribution to the IMF is not public spending. All UK loans to the IMF are financed from the UK's Official Reserves, remain UK assets and do not contribute to public sector net debt.
The UK's move was welcomed by the head of an important House of Commons committee of MPs.
Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Committee, said: "This is not just sensible, it is essential.
"The IMF is the only fire-brigade available to the global economy. It is vital that the IMF has the necessary tools to deal with the current eurozone crisis and the risks to wider global financial stability."
Target
There is still a question about what other major economies will do.
Brazil wants to have a bigger say in running the IMF in return for a commitment of extra money, while the US is not likely to offer any money because doing so would attract criticism at home in a presidential election year, according to BBC economics correspondent Andrew Walker.
Brazil said the US and Europe dominated the IMF and that meant IMF policies favoured the two blocs.
Brazil's voting power is the same as the Netherlands and smaller than Spain, Italy and the UK's, although the Brazlian economy is bigger than all of these.
Its finance minister, Guido Mantega, said emerging countries - including his - were "paying a high price" for the loose monetary policies of advanced economies that had been endorsed by the IMF.
He said though that they would also contribute further to the fund to help reach the desired target of $400bn: "It's likely that we will reach an agreement around $400bn to increase IMF resources."
He said who would give what would be decided in principle by the next (G20) meeting in Los Cabos in Mexico two months from now.
Russia's deputy finance minister Sergei Storchak has already said that his country will offer $10bn and that he is confident that the IMF will reach its funding target.
Committing the extra money does not mean it will actually need to be loaned.
The German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, said the extra funds were a sign of international co-operation: "The Europeans have done what they have promised, what we had agreed on.
"We [the G7 leading developed nations] agreed that the debate on IMF resources has to be brought to an end here. That is not a sole European issue."
The IMF hopes that if private investors think that countries in trouble can be rescued if necessary, they will be more willing to lend to them and any funding problems will not escalate.
It has already warned that the eurozone's debt crisis poses the biggest threat to the global economy, and warnings about Europe are expected to top the eventual communique from the meetings.
Disney film boss Rich Ross resigns after John Carter flop
The head of Disney film-making studio, Rich Ross, has resigned as chairman a month after the film John Carter became one of the company's biggest flops.
He revealed his move by email: "I no longer believe that the chairman role is the right professional fit for me."
A 15-year Disney veteran, he became chairman in 2009.
He was previously the president of the Disney Channel when it created the hugely successful High School Musical and Hannah Montana series.
At the movie division, Mr Ross, 50, approved production of the science fiction film John Carter, although it had been in development before he joined the studio.
The film, which was based on a series of books by Tarzan writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, eventually cost more than $250m (£155m, 189m euros) and last month Disney said it expected the film to lose about $200m.
That would leave the studio with $80m-$210m in operating losses.
Disney is not expected to appoint a new studio chairman immediately.
The company's Chief Executive Bob Iger hailed Mr Ross's contribution: "For more than a decade, Rich Ross' creative instincts, business acumen and personal integrity have driven results in key businesses for Disney.
"I appreciate his countless contributions throughout his entire career at Disney and expect he will have tremendous success in whatever he chooses to do next."
Mr Ross joined the Disney Channel in 1996 as a programming and production executive and was promoted to president of the cable channel in 2004.
EU condemns Repsol state seizure
The European Parliament has passed a resolution condemning a nationalisation that has strained relations between Spain and Argentina.
Argentina has nationalised YPF, wiping out the Spanish firm Repsol's controlling-stake in the oil firm.
The resolution asks the European Commission to consider a "partial suspension" of tariffs that benefit Argentine exports into the EU.
Shares in Repsol has another decline, falling 2.3% on Friday.
Over the week, Repsol stock has lost almost a fifth of its value.
MEPs in the European Parliament said the institution "deplores" the decision taken by Argentina and describes it as an "attack on the exercise of free enterprise".
Decisions such as that taken by the Argentine authorities "can put a strain on the climate of understanding and friendship needed to reach" a trade agreement between a South American bloc and the EU, it said.
The resolution, which is non-binding, received 458 votes in favour, 71 against and 16 abstentions.
'Not valid'
It also emerged that Repsol may be obliged to buy a minority shareholder's YPF stake if it ever lost majority control, which Repsol denied.
Twenty-five percent of YPF is owned by Argentina's Eskenazi family through its firm, Peterson.
According to regulator filings of a 2008 agreement,Repsol must "maintain directly or indirectly through controlled companies an ownership interest greater than or equal to 50.1%".
If it does not, Repsol is obliged to buy back the loans used to secure the Eskenazis' shares.
But Repsol told the BBC that the expropriation of its stake in YPF had invalidated the agreement.
"The agreement is not valid under Spanish law in these conditions," said Kristian Rix, a Repsol spokesman. "The law is unequivocal, there is no debate."
Trade war brewing?
Spain has threatened retaliation against Argentina over the forced nationalisation of oil firm YPF, raising the prospects of a trade war between the nations.
Spanish Trade Secretary Jaime Garcia Legaz said the European Union would intervene over Argentina's seizure of YPF.
Argentina is taking over 51% of YPF, wiping out Repsol's 57.4% majority stake.
The move has wide support in Argentina but has provoked outrage in Spain.
Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had also offered support.
Repsol has said it wants around $10bn (£6.2bn) for its stake in YPF, but Argentina has said it does not accept that valuation.
YPF, Argentina's biggest oil company, was privatised in 1993. Last year it announced huge new finds of shale oil and gas.
BBC