Businessman Charlie Palmer dismisses rumors that he threw Lands Survey staff out of his building
Businessman Charlie Palmer dismisses rumors that he threw Lands Survey staff out of his building today.
A source told RTC News today that the doors to the Lands and Survey department were locked today so that staff of that department was unable to go
inside and perform their daily duties. Our source further noted that non-payment of bills seem to have been the reasoning behind the decision
to shut down the office today.
However, RTC News caught up with Mr. Charlie Palmer this evening. He said nothing could be further from the truth. Palmer said he had received
correspondence from TCIG sometime in November last year that the departments that were housed in his PALMCO building on the Leeward
Highway, would be relocating to Butterfield Square effective 31st January.2012.
The three departments housed in the PALMCO building, were the Social Development, Valuation and Lands and Survey departments.
RTC News spoke further with a government official who reiterated that there was no truth to the circulated rumors of the staff of these
departments being locked out of their offices.
The government official noted that the decision to relocate these was to sort of create a one stop shop by centralizing these departments, which
would make it easier for the customer as they would not now find themselves having to for example, get a bill and then have to go to the
other side of town to go pay for and get a receipt for the same.
He said in addition to addition to reducing rent, the TCIG is seeking to promote efficiency and effectiveness by centralizing these functions.
He said TCIG will be undertaking similar moves in the islands of Grand Turk, South and North Caicos.
Philippine military 'kills three wanted militants'
The Philippine military says it has killed three senior militants from al-Qaeda-linked groups in a raid in the south of the country.
The air raid took place on Thursday in an area known as a militant stronghold.
Officials said two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders and one Abu Sayyaf leader were among a total of 15 people killed.
Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, or Marwan, who was on the US FBI's most wanted list with a $5m (£3.2m) reward offered for his capture, was reported killed.
According to the military, the militants were killed in the town of Parang on Jolo island, Sulu province, in the Mindanao region.
Regional military commander Maj Gen Noel Coballes told Agence France Presse news agency that troops on the ground had confirmed the deaths.
Marwan, a top JI leader, is said to have been behind a series of bomb attacks in the southern Philippines since 2006.
The military identified the other two senior militants as Jemaah Islamiyah leader Abdullah Ali, aliases Muhamda Ali or Mauwiya, and an Abu Sayyaf leader, Gumbahali Jumdail alias Doc Abu.
According to the FBI, Marwan is "an engineer trained in the US" and has conducted bomb-making activities for militant groups, especially Abu Sayyaf.
Muawiya, also a top JI leader, is said to be a Singaporean national who came to the Philippines after the Bali bombings in 2002. A reward of $50,000 had been offered for his capture.
JI has links to al-Qaeda and has a long track record of attacks in Indonesia. It is believed to have been behind the Bali bombings of 2002.
Doc Abu, a Filipino, is said to be a regional Abu Sayyaf leader wanted for multiple kidnappings. Abu Sayyaf is one of the most radical of the Islamic separatist groups in the southern Philippines.
A military spokesman told the BBC that the operation was ordered after reports that a group of militants had arrived in the area on 30 December.
The islands in the south-west Philippines are known to harbour various militant groups - some of which also operate as kidnap-for-ransom gangs, reports the BBC's Kate McGeown.
Just this week, Abu Sayyaf is thought to have kidnapped two European tourists from the area.
BBC
French Prosecutors to Investigate Italian Cruise Ship Disaster
French prosecutors have launched an investigation into the cause of last month's Costa Concordia cruise ship grounding off the coast of Italy.
The Paris prosecutors's office said Thursday that it has asked police to question French survivors to establish criminal liability and establish psychological damage caused by the accident.
More than 450 French people were on board the Costa Concordia when it ran aground January 13 off the coast of the Tuscan island of Giglio. Seventeen people, including four French citizens, were killed in the shipwreck. Some 15 people, including two French, are missing and presumed dead.
The cruise line has offered $14,000 in compensation to each survivor. But many in France and elsewhere have rejected the deal.
US Groundhog Predicts Six More Weeks of Winter
Winter is here to stay for at least for six more weeks, according to a furry little resident of a small town called Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania.
A groundhog dubbed Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his cozy tree stump home early Thursday, as he does each year, and he saw his shadow.
Tradition has it that if Phil sees his shadow , there will be six more weeks of winter. If not, it means spring will arrive soon.
If Phil is correct in his 2012 forecast, the U.S. may get the winter weather that it has been missing since the season began nearly two months ago.
Last Groundhog Day, more than half of the continental U.S. was covered in snow. Less than a fifth of was the nation was covered Wednesday.
Organizers expected a crowd of 15,000 or more to gather for the traditional Groundhog Day observance.
Groundhog Day is traditionally observed each February second at cities and villages throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Punxsutawney Phil is the most famous of the furry prognosticators. Generations of groundhogs have been predicting the weather since 1887.
Other states have their own groundhogs, like Sir Walter Wally of North Carolina. In West Virginia, there is French Creek Freddie. Georgia has General Beauregard Lee.
Canada's most famous groundhog is Wiarton Willie of Ottawa.
Afghan Roadmap Stands Despite US, French Announcements
NATO Secretary General Anders-Fogh Rasmussen says the coalition's timeline for the security transition in Afghanistan still stands, despite recent announcements from the United States and France.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have each suggested the coalition should end its combat role in 2013, more than a year ahead of previous plans, and switch to training and advising Afghan troops through 2014.
Rasmussen said ahead of Thursday's NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels that the alliance will stand by its previously agreed to plan to wind up operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
But the NATO secretary-general noted that international troops will hand over security control of the last Afghan provinces to Afghan forces by the middle of next year. He said starting in mid-2013, Afghan security forces will “take the lead” and coalition troops will gradually change from “combat to support.” He said “in that, there is nothing new.”
Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters traveling to Brussels with him that “hopefully by the mid-to-latter part of 2013 we will be able to make a transition from a combat role to a training, advise and assist role.”
French President Sarkozy announced earlier this month that his country will withdraw its combat forces from Afghanistan in 2013, a year earlier than planned.
The U.S. defense chief called 2013 a crucial year for the final transfer of remaining areas to Afghan security forces. He said no decisions have been made about the level of U.S. forces remaining in Afghanistan once that combat role has ended.
Thursday's NATO meeting in Brussels is being held just days after a leaked coalition report revealed that members of the Taliban insurgency are confident they can regain power in Afghanistan once coalition troops have departed.
The meeting is meant to lay the groundwork for a larger NATO gathering set for Chicago in May.
Hundreds Rescued from Papua New Guinea Ferry Disaster
Scores of passengers are still missing after a ferry sank early Thursday off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea.
Nerae Marimahu, a spokeswoman with the Pacific nation's National Maritime Safety Authority in Port Moresby, told VOA the MV Rabaul Queen sank about 16 kilometers off Cape Fortification. She said it was not immediately clear why the ferry sank.
The maritime agency says at least 300 passengers were believed to be aboard the ferry when it sank.
Australia's maritime authority has dispatched a special plane to help in the rescue efforts. A spokeswoman for the authority says more than 230 people have been pulled alive from the waters.
Several merchant ships have also been deployed to assist in the search for survivors.
The ferry's operator says it lost contact with the vessel as it was traveling between the island of New Britain and the town of Lae.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the disaster as “a major tragedy” and said her country was helping Papua New Guinea respond.
British lord ‘concealed link’ to bankrupt Turks and Caicos firm
British peer Lord Ashcroft concealed his involvement in a Turks and Caicos Islands construction company that went into receivership with debts of around US$30 million, Panorama, a BBC television programme, has alleged.
The programme alleges that Ashcroft misled the stock market and the media about his links to Johnston International Limited.
According to the BBC, he said he has had no “economic beneficial or legal interest” in the firm since he sold it in 1999. But the programme has reportedly obtained evidence that shows Ashcroft continued to secretly control the company long after that date.
Johnston was one of the largest construction companies in the Caribbean, until it closed down in June 2010.
Panorama has spoken to 14 former employees, who all say they were told, long after 1999, that Ashcroft was their boss, the BBC reported. The programme also obtained dozens of faxes covering a seven year period that were sent to Ashcroft by the Johnston chief executive after the 1999 sale.
The faxes apparently updated Ashcroft on company business and asked for his instructions on major building projects. Ashcroft then wrote his instructions on some of the faxes and sent them back, Panorama reported.
According to Ashcroft’s lawyers, he did not have any kind of interest in the ownership of the Johnston group of companies.
However, Panorama had not asked Ashcroft about the ownership of Johnston. The programme had asked whether he controlled the company — and that, the BBC said, is a question he has repeatedly avoided answering.
Johnston had been doing business in the Turks and Caicos Islands since the early 1980s and, with associated operations in the Cayman Islands, Belize, Trinidad and Barbados, was a pre-eminent local and regional contractor.
After 28 years of doing business in the Turks and Caicos, the company was placed into receivership in July 2010 and into liquidation the following month.
At a meeting of Johnston creditors in September 2010, the liquidators revealed that the company’s financial woes may not have occurred had it not been for the non-payment of millions of dollars owed to it by the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (UDeCOTT).
Further, the list of unpaid debts owed by Turks and Caicos businesses and individuals to Johnston reads like a who’s who of the Progressive National Party (PNP) hierarchy, the governing party in the TCI immediately prior to the partial suspension of the constitution and the imposition of direct rule by Britain following a Commission of Inquiry into allegations of widespread government corruption.
Mexican diplomat freed after abduction in Caracas
A Mexican diplomat in Venezuela says the country's ambassador has been freed by captors hours after he and his wife were kidnapped.
Mexican Embassy spokesman Fernando Gondinez told the Venezuelan news website Noticias 24 that Ambassador Carlos Pujalte was kidnapped Sunday night in Caracas and was freed hours later.
Gondinez says both the ambassador and his wife are in good condition. He did not offer details about how the abduction occurred or about the liberation.
Venezuela has one of Latin America's highest murder rates, and the numbers of kidnappings have risen in recent years.
AP
World Bank country director meets with Jamaican PM tomorrow
WORLD Bank country director for the Caribbean region, Francoise Clottes, is expected to arrive in Jamaica tomorrow for a series of meetings with government and private sector officials.
She is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller tomorrow to discuss issues related to growth and competitiveness, as well as hold discussions with Jamaican experts and key leaders in business and academia.
Clottes, who joined the bank in 1994, is a French national and has been country director for the Caribbean for a year. As country director for the region, her top priorities are to forge strong client relationships and develop strategies and programmes to help the countries address their development challenges.
In addition, one of her roles is to continue to champion innovative solutions to development issues and regional integration, as well as provide leadership to the country’s management unit and offices. Her visit is expected to end on Thursday.
Haiti judge: Try Duvalier on corruption charges
A Haitian judge said yesterday that former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier should face trial for corruption, but not the more serious charges of human rights violations committed during his rule.
Investigative Magistrate Carves said the statute of limitations had run out on the human rights charges but not on the accusations of misappropriation of public funds. He did not explain his reasoning, but the once-feared ruler known as "Baby Doc" is widely believed to have used money from the Haitian treasury to finance his life in exile.
The judge said he recommended that the case be heard by a special court that handles relatively minor crimes. Duvalier, who has been free to roam about the capital since his surprise return from exile last year, would face no more than five years in prison.
Duvalier's attorney Reynolds Georges, who had argued that the case should be dismissed in its entirety because the statute of limitations had expired on all the charges, said he would appeal the decision as soon as he received the paperwork.
"We're going to appeal that decision... and throw it in the garbage can," Georges told The Associated Press.
Duvalier has posed a challenge to Haiti since his return home from 25 years in exile, most of which he spent in France. Haiti has a weak judicial system, with little history of successfully prosecuting even simple crimes, and the government is preoccupied with reconstruction from the devastating January 2010 earthquake.
A majority of Haitians are now too young to have lived under Duvalier but many still remember his government's nightmarish prisons and violent special militia, known as the Tonton Macoute, which killed and tortured political opponents with impunity.