Bermudian sworn in as new Chief Justice
Bermudian Ian Kawaley was sworn in Tuesday as the island’s new Chief Justice, replacing Englishman Richard Ground who took up the post in 2004 after having also served in the Turks and Caicos Islands, another British Overseas Territory.
Ground was been appointed to the post over the objections of then-Premier Alex Scott whose choice was Jamaica-born judge Norma Wade Miller, the ex-wife of former Opposition Leader Frederick Wade.
Governor Sir Richard Gozney signed the instrument of appointment at a ceremony attended by Premier Paula Cox and the leader of the One Bermuda Alliance Craig Cannonier and United Bermuda Party legislator, Kim Swan.
The newly appointed head of the judiciary said it was a great honour and a privilege to accept the appointment, adding “Bermuda is one of the most respected legal jurisdictions in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas.
“So it is a great honour to head up the judicial system here,” he said.
Delano Williams makes moves into British Olympic team
RTC Sports have learnt through UK Athletics who have confirmed that teenage sprint sensation Delano Williams is eligible for the British Olympic team if he performs at the British trials in Birmingham in June.
The 18-year-old, from the Turks and Caicos Islands, received his UK passport on Friday confirmed by Rita Gardiner, having visited Britain only once, on a holiday to London.
He has already recorded a 200m Olympic ‘A’ UK qualifying standard time this year after running a personal best of 20.53sec at a meeting in Jamaica last month.
He has been invited by Usain Bolt’s sprint coach Glen Mills to join his training stable.
Currently studying in Jamaica, Williams won the 100m and 200m national high school championships over the weekend, beating the best young runners at the sprint capital of the world.
A native of the Turks and Caicos islands in the West Indies our status as a British Overseas Territory means Williams can switch allegiance under IAAF rules.
At the Olympic trials in Birmingham on June 22-24 he will face the likes of James Ellington (personal best 20.52sec), Marlon Devonish (20.19sec) and Christian Malcolm (20.08sec) - and may even kick one of them out of the Olympic squad.
Williams only has to finish in the top two in the 200m to make the team. He claims that when he ran 20.53sec last month he had not been doing any sprint training and believes he can run much faster.
Delano says he is ready and the TCI is ready, Go Delano, Go!!
Mail/RTC Sports
James gets season-high 41, Heat beat 76ers 99-93
LeBron James arrived at work a little earlier than usual on Tuesday, warming up more than three hours before tip-off with hopes of finding his rhythm.
With Dwyane Wade out, Miami needed some extra offense - and James delivered.
James scored 14 straight Miami points in the fourth quarter and finished with a season-high 41, helping the Heat clinch a playoff spot with a 99-93 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
It was the 16th straight home win for Miami, which has won its last 11 regular-season games against the 76ers. The Heat also moved within 2 1/2 games of Chicago in the race for the Eastern Conference's best record.
"It was a grind," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "No question, it was a grind."
Mario Chalmers had 19 points, Chris Bosh scored 17 and Udonis Haslem grabbed 11 rebounds for Miami, which improved to 9-1 without Wade this season. Wade sat with a bruised left knee, leaving his status for Wednesday's showdown with Oklahoma City in some doubt.
Evan Turner scored 26 points for Philadelphia, which fell 1 1/2 games behind Boston in the Atlantic Division. Lou Williams scored 18, Spencer Hawes added 12 and Andre Iguodala had 11 before leaving in the third quarter with a left eye contusion.
It was just the fourth time in 24 games this season that the 76ers shot at least 45 percent and lost.
"We got right there. ... We just couldn't get over that hump," Williams said.
James scored 21 points after Iguodala - who was the primary defender on him - departed with 4:42 left in the third quarter. Iguodala was holding the ball as Chalmers tried swiping it away, but only wound up connecting with the face of the 76ers' guard. Iguodala went to the floor in pain, holding the area around his left eye, then eventually made his way to the Philadelphia bench and locker room with part of his face covered by a towel.
"I thought my eye was gone," Iguodala said. "It was hurting really bad. I had a really bad headache for about 10 minutes."
When Iguodala left, Miami led 68-64. Soon, the Heat had their biggest lead. James had six points in a quick 8-2 spurt that pushed Miami's edge to 76-66 with 2:23 left in the third.
Midway through the fourth, the 76ers said Iguodala had a left eye contusion and his return was questionable.
Williams' jumper with 2:27 left got Philadelphia within three, the closest margin since early in the third quarter.
But James made a pair of jumpers, and then came, as he put it, "probably the biggest play of the game." He missed a fadeaway, and Shane Battier - who started in Wade's place - sprawled out to control the rebound and extend Miami's possession.
A few seconds later, Chalmers found James for an alley-oop dunk that put the Heat up 92-85 with 1:27 left and all but sealed the win.
"Right after it happened, I went straight to Shane and told him it was a huge play," James said. "It was a big play. The dunk, it was the easy part, honestly."
Besides the Battier-for-Wade move, the Heat made another change to the starting lineup, with Ronny Turiaf starting at center over Joel Anthony.
Before the game, Sixers coach Doug Collins lamented how his team had the misfortune of playing Miami twice already this season in games immediately following Heat losses. And in both of those games, Miami made statements - winning 99-79 on Feb. 3, then running out to a ridiculous 57-30 halftime lead on March 16 before escaping with an 84-78 victory.
And with the combination of the loss in Boston on Sunday, and the looming Wednesday game with Oklahoma City, Collins figured the Heat would try to put the 76ers away early.
Of course, when he said that, he also thought Wade would be playing.
Philadelphia led 54-51 at the break, then lost the lead for good while being outscored 25-16 in the third quarter. It was Miami's biggest third-quarter win since outscoring New York 29-19 in that period on Feb. 23.
"To start the third, we were careless," Collins said. "We turned the ball over. We didn't have the crisp passing that we had during the first half."
AP
Tiger Woods 'as good as ever'
Tiger Woods believes he is back to the form that saw him hold all four majors after his Masters victory in 2001.
The former world number one, who is looking for his fifth Masters title, won his first PGA Tour title since September 2009 at Bay Hill last week.
"I think I have more shots than in 2000," he said after being paired with Miguel Angel Jimenez and Bae Sang-moon in Thursday's first round.
"I'm hitting the ball as consistently day-in, day-out as I did then."
He added: "I feel like I'm driving the ball much better than I have.
"I've got some heat behind it and its very straight. My iron game is improving. So everything is headed in the right direction at the right time."
World number three Lee Westwood has already dismissed suggestions that the tournament will be a two-horse race between Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy but Woods is full of praise for the Irishman, who bounced back after his challenge last year "went pearshaped".
"It was cool to see someone learn from their mistake like that and apply it," added Woods.
"He was playing so well, he just had one bad round. He learned from it, applied it and ran away with the US Open. That was some pretty impressive playing.
"He has all the makings of being a great champion for a long period of time. He just needs to get more experienced."
Meanwhile, defending champion Charl Schwartzel says he has arrived at Augusta with "a different mind-set" following his sensational victory last year.
The South African made four straight birdies as Rory McIlroy crumbled, to win the prestigious tournament at only his second attempt.
"I have a different mind-set coming into this event knowing that you've won," said Schwartzel, who has been given the locker previously used by the late Seve Ballesteros in the champions' locker room.
"I almost expect myself to win. I feel like I'm playing good enough. I feel like if I've done it before, why can't I do it again?"
However, the 27-year-old has not won a tournament since and returns to Augusta having missed the cut at his last two PGA Tour events.
"It has been pretty overwhelming," he added. "My life basically changed overnight.
"When I got back home, I didn't realise how big it was, how many people actually saw it.
"Wherever I went, people congratulated me, and still do. It doesn't seem to ease down. It doesn't stop, and it's fantastic."
Phil Mickelson has won the Masters three times and is predicting a low-scoring tournament this year.
"I don't want to say the greens are slow, but it's just not the same Augusta," said the 41-year-old American.
"It's wet around the greens, and there's no fear of the course. You've got to attack it this week.
"Unless something changes, and I know they have SubAir (greens drying system) and hopefully they will be able to use it, but unless they change it, it's going to be a birdie fest."
Good job, but WI not home yet
IT IS TIME! West Indies and Australia are ready for Test cricket. While five One-Day Internationals and two Twenty20 Internationals gave us great surprises, tremendous excitement, even euphoria, it is Test cricket, where slugging does not work, that really counts. Only the very strong, those with real, tough stamina, will survive!
“Fast is good; it may get you there quickly! Do not underrate slow; you will get there anyway; maybe!”
My mother reminded of this daily. Without much knowledge of cricket, Sylvia was right!
Our appetites are now whetted for three Tests. Mindsets and preparations – mental and physical – must be realigned and retooled for longer games. What may have been thought for 20, 40, 50 or 100 overs must now take cranial space for five days.
As England found out, to their chagrin, in last week’s opening Test versus Sri Lanka, Test cricket is long and hard. If you only trained for a 400-metre race, you will be unprepared for a 3 000 metre steeplechase and will falter badly at the longer escapade.
West Indies have done wonderfully well against Australia in games that lasted one day. Now it is left to be seen how much mental development and maturity has been gained over especially the last year, with Ottis Gibson as head coach and Darren Sammy as captain.
Australia’s South African head coach, Mickey Arthur, prophetically suggested West Indies should not be underrated, as teams playing in their ‘backyard’ could even things out. He was correct.
Australia have Test personnel advantages, even if they are not fully aware of conditions. Having come face to face with some of West Indies’ offerings, they will certainly not be taking the home team lightly. They are probably shocked at the ODI series 2-2 and T20 I 1-1 results!
Veterans Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke present tremendous experience and production. Get one cheaply and others could still pummel West Indies to a pulp. It has been done before.
While Australia struggled to manage the slowness of Arnos Vale’s pitches, they endured, diligently, as good professionals do, to bring themselves up to speed for games there.
Having enjoyed the bounce and pace of Beausejour, St Lucia, they also looked forward to the renowned Kensington Oval, considered almost universally of having the best cricket-friendly pitch in the Caribbean. The curators at “The Mecca” have massive responsibilities to uphold.
Consistent bounce, good pace, sufficient movement and late-game spin, enabling batsmen to play strokes “through the line”, should allow for a tremendous first Test, even though, like most things for West Indies recently, it is no longer that bastion of our own successes anymore.
Former England captain Mike Gatting, who vacationed in Barbados weeks ago, former England national selector, David Graveney, and his immediate successor, Geoff Miller, told me, at a Professional Cricketers Association event in London last week, exactly the same thing about West Indies cricket.
--Colin Croft is a former Guyana and West Indies fast bowler.
Barcelona 3-1 AC Milan (3-1 agg)
Lionel Messi was Barcelona's hero yet again as his two first-half penalties sealed a Champions League quarter-final win over AC Milan.
Messi, 24, moved into third on the list of all-time goalscorers in the competition as Barca set up a last-four place against Benfica or Chelsea.
Milan were briefly level when midfielder Antonio Nocerino steered in Zlatan Ibrahimovic's pass.
But they had no answer after the break with Andres Iniesta adding a third.
No side has ever retained the trophy in the Champions League era but Pep Guardiola's side must be outstanding favourites to achieve the feat in Munich on 19 May.
Messi inspired them to beat Manchester United in last year's final at Wembley, and the Argentine's incredible goalscoring form could steer the club to another title this year.
Barely a week seems to go by without Messi adding another record to his collection, and he quickly chalked up two more to his ever-growing list of personal achievements with his 57th and 58th goals of a remarkable season.
He became the youngest player to score 50 Champions League goals with his first spot-kick, before notching up the most goals in a single campaign as his second of the night - and 14th in total this season - put Barca back ahead.
Messi then completed the night's work with an assist as his shot was blocked by the hapless Philippe Mexes, only to fall into the path of Iniesta who struck the pivotal third goal into the far corner.
Chelsea could yet bar Guardiola's side's progress - in a repeat of the ill-tempered semi-final of 2009 - and Roberto di Matteo's side will have seen few chinks in the defending champions' armour during this display.
Massimiliano Allegri's Milan team knew that any score draw would be enough to see them through, and they made a lively start before Messi opened the scoring 11 minutes in.
Disappointingly for the visitors, the goal was a gift as Mexes dawdled on the halfway line and was robbed of possession by Messi.
The forward surprisingly elected to cut the ball back for Xavi instead of shooting, but when the ball came back to Messi he was brought down by Luca Antonini.
Referee Bjorn Kuipers awarded the penalty and Messi stroked the ball into the bottom corner.
Milan continued to pose a threat and drew level with a fine goal just after the half hour.
Former Manchester City man Robinho hurdled two tackles before finding Ibrahimovic on the edge of the box, and the Swede played a perfectly-weighted through pass which Nocerino placed beyond Victor Valdes.
But the Italians failed to build on that goal and Barcelona were back ahead before the break as Alessandro Nesta gave away another cheap penalty.
The vastly experienced defender needlessly grabbed hold of Sergio Busquets inside the area, and Messi struck the ball into the opposite corner.
Messi was instrumental in the third goal as well, and when his low shot struck Mexes to land at Iniesta's feet, the midfielder calmly took a touch before rifling past Christian Abbiati.
That goal crushed Milan's spirit, and the match desended into an exhibition as Barca booked their place in the semi-finals for a fifth successive year.
With Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid still in the mix and a potent Bayern Munich side looking to win the cup on their own ground, Barcelona still face several considerable hurdles before they can lift the trophy again, but Guardiola's men undoubtedly remain the side to beat.
Boao Forum participants optimistic about emerging markets
Business and political leaders from around the world have gathered this week in south China’s island province of Hainan for the Boao forum for Asia.
Against the backdrop of the global downturn, their focus is Asia’s economy.
But participants are optimistic about the continent’s emerging markets. Maersk Line is the world’s largest container shipping company, and they’ve got their eye on the tremendous opportunities to be found in Asia.
Despite a robust economic outlook for the future, challenges remain. This is especially the case for export-oriented economies, which are finding their traditional markets are shrinking.
CCTV correspondent Guan Xin said, "To cope with external pressure, participants say the most important thing is to build on internal demand. That means, to encourage Asian consumers to spend more."
Companies are already capitalizing on the trend. A top executive at Starbucks says it plans to triple the size of its workforce and network of shops in China over the next three years.
John Culver, Int’l President of Starbucks Coffee said, "We are committed to making China as our second home market of the company...By 2014, China will be our largest market outside US. And by 2015, we will have 50 hundred stores on the mainland and operating in over 70 cities, so for us, we see it as a big opportunity..."
But it’s not easy to stimulate this kind of demand. Income inequality is still a common issue for many Asian countries.
Xiang Bing, Dean of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, said, "Without middle class as majority, it is virtually impossible to have a harmonious society. The Chinese economies did well in terms of generating billionaires, and we are No.2 on the Forbes list already. Maybe in 3 or 5 years, we will be No.1, catching up with the US, even overtaking US. But if you look at the percentage of middle class of the total population, I think we need to improve. These are some structural changes of China. It gonna be taking some long time."
Middle class consumers in Asia will increase by 1.2 billion by 2020. But as just a part of a much larger population, that is still far from enough.
Al-Qaeda 'could target UK youths'
British youths from African communities could become radicalised as al-Qaeda looks to Africa to build its strength, the Rusi think tank has suggested.
It says such a development would pose new challenges for UK and other Western intelligence services.
It warns of potential for new or greater radicalisation among British youths from the Somali and other east and west African communities.
The government said it was tackling home-grown terrorist threats.
Radicalisation has already been seen during the past 15 years among some young members of the Pakistani, North African and Indian communities in Britain, the report published by the Royal United Services Institute suggests.
Report author Valentina Soria said: "Most significant is the potential for radicalisation and then mobilisation of a new subset of British youths."
"The UK could soon be facing much greater radicalisation among the Somali minority and new radicalisation in some sections of other communities from east and west African countries."
This was because the "jihadist challenge" may be migrating across Saharan and Sub-Saharan Africa as the al-Qaeda leadership - weakened by the death of Osama Bin Laden - looks to partnerships to re-group and re-energise itself, the report says.
Western intelligence services have acknowledged that the terror threat has changed and shifted, including into Africa, with Somalia a particular focus of concern.
But this report suggests those intelligence services also face new challenges tracking the threat if "jihadism evolves and disperses into territories of ungoverned, or loosely governed, space across large stretches of the African continent".
Regarding Somalia, Ms Soria said foreign fighters now represented "a valuable, albeit still limited, source of manpower for al-Shabab", a Somali hardline Islamist banned in the UK.
'Operational necessity'
It is "possible that the use of new terror tactics may have further alienated its African recruits who are mostly reluctant to get involved in suicide bombings", she said.
"As a result, the recruitment of foreign fighters could be read as a choice of operational necessity rather than as a move aimed to make al-Shabab the next al-Qaida."
She added that the "dynamics of jihadism in Africa may provoke direct terrorist attacks inside the UK" but said there had been "no direct public evidence of this happening".
Ms Soria said: "The UK cannot expect to remain immune from the 'spill-over' effects of events that could reshape part of the African continent."
A government spokeswoman said: "We are tackling the threat of home-grown terrorism with our new prevent strategy, which is challenging extremist ideology and tackling the radicalisation of vulnerable people.
"We are also working with governments in Africa to improve their capacity to tackle the terrorist threat."
Spain's jobless level hits record 4.75 million
The number of Spanish jobseekers rose for the eighth month in a row in March to hit a record 4.75 million.
The Labour Ministry said the number of people filing for unemployment benefits rose by 38,769 with the services sector seeing the most jobs lost.
The jobless rate in Spain stood at 23.6% in February, according to EU figures released on Monday.
Meanwhile, Spain has said its public debt will leap more than 10 percentage points this year to 79.8% of GDP.
'Recovering confidence'
The Finance Ministry said: "Public debt will rise from 68.5% of GDP at the end of 2011 to 79.8%, a level which is still below the eurozone average of 90.4%."
It comes as Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro presented his government's 2012 budget to parliament.
The package, which was approved by the cabinet on Friday, includes 27bn euros' ($36bn; £22.5bn) worth of spending cuts and tax increases.
"We are convinced that this budget will meet the challenge of recovering the confidence of our European partners," Mr Montoro told a news conference held in parliament.
The European Union has set a ceiling for public debt of 60% of gross domestic product.
'Unsatisfactory situation'
The unemployment figures released on Tuesday show that the situation is worse for young Spaniards, as youth unemployment is running at 50%.
Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the European Union and it is expected to rise further this year.
The government hopes that reform to the labour market will help ease the problem.
Its measures include cutting back on severance pay and restricting inflation-linked salary increases.
But those measures have angered unions, who organised a general strike last Thursday.
Secretary of State for Employment Engracia Hidalgo said in a statement: "We continue to face an unsatisfactory situation of an increase in the number of people registered as unemployed.
"This is why it is necessary to reiterate the importance of creating confidence and flexibility for companies, as was done with the labour law reform."
US Federal Reserve stays concerned over growth
The US central bank is concerned that the gains in employment recently will dissipate if growth does not pick up.
Some at the Federal Reserve "perceived a non-negligible risk that improvements in employment could diminish as the year progressed," said the minutes of the March meeting.
In March, the Fed decided again to keep interest rates at record lows until at least late 2014.
The US unemployment rate is down to 8.3%, the lowest for three years.
Employment has been rising for the past six months, but the jobless rate has been stuck above 8% since early 2009.
The number of new jobs being created has been consistently above 200,000 in each of the past three months, fuelling hopes that the US recovery is gathering pace.
At the March meeting, the Fed's staff revised the central bank's near-term forecast for real gross domestic product (GDP) growth upwards slightly.
"Labour market conditions had continued to improve and unemployment had declined in recent months," the Fed said.
"But almost all members saw the unemployment rate as still elevated relative to levels that they viewed as consistent with the committee's mandate over the longer run."