Look to the south, Colombia urges CARICOM
President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, has encouraged heads of government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to look to the south, even as he acknowledged that the south had to “look to those states that shine like pearls in the sea that unites our continent”.
In remarks during an audience last Friday with the heads of government of CARICOM at their thirty-second meeting in Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis, the Colombian president said that he brought messages of unity and prosperity and announced that Colombia wanted to give special importance and priority to the needs of the Caribbean region.
Bearing in mind the slogan of the sixth Summit of the Americas (SOA), `Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity’ -- which his country hosts next year -- Santos underscored that the summit was a partnership at the highest political level to find solutions to the problems the continent and islands of the Americas were facing.
“It is a partnership… to deliver better living conditions to the peoples of our hemisphere. And, in that context, Colombia wants to give special importance and priority to the needs of the Caribbean region,” he told the CARICOM heads of government.
While acknowledging the historic role the north has played in the region, Santos noted the difficulties being faced by that part of the world and pointed out that the sixth SOA would serve the purpose of further developing hemispheric relations.
“We must understand that the Summit of the Americas is a unique and privileged space for dialogue that brings together all the heads of state and government of the hemisphere. In that sense, it is an important forum with opportunities for agreement and understanding,” he pointed out.
The summit, the Colombian president said, could be an ideal scenario for CARICOM to set out its priorities on matters such as the reduction of poverty and inequality, solutions to combat the insecurity that affects the citizenry and the threats posed to the stability of democracies by transnational crime; and the effects of natural disasters.
Jamaican lesbian gains asylum in UK
A tribunal has awarded a Jamaican lesbian "refugee protection" in the United Kingdom following her appeal that she would be at risk of persecution and clinical depression should she return to this country.
The BBC reported that the woman, who had left Jamaica to study abroad in 2003, and now lives in Stoke-on-Trent, was originally refused the right to remain in the UK by the Home Office.
However, she appealed on the grounds that in Jamaica, which she described as a "deeply homophobic" country, she had been threatened with 'corrective rape' and suffered clinical depression.
She said that it was only in the UK that she could live her life as an openly gay person and that her girlfriend would be unwilling to return with her to Jamaica given the situation here.
Bruce tells Audley to ensure workers get paid
PUBLIC sector leaders were finally able to put their signatures to an agreement this morning for the more than 100,000 civil servants to receive the long-awaited seven per cent increase which has been owed by Government since 2009.
At a special signing ceremony at Jamaica House, Prime Minister Bruce Golding assured the public sector groups that the Public Sector Transformation Unit’s monitoring committee will be ensuring that Government delivers on the agreement.
Golding also urged Minister of Finance Audley Shaw to ensure that the scheduled dates for payments are kept.
"I will not be of much assistance to you if at some point in time you sat here and witnessed our signing this agreement to say we are going to pay a certain amount on a certain day, if the month before it is due you come to me to say you have a problem," he told Shaw.
The new wage rates will begin to be applied in September this year, covering the period April-August 2011 and the retroactive sums for this period will be paid in two tranches in September and December.
Retroactive sums owed the workers the for 2009 to March 2011 will start to be paid out in June 2012 and extend over a subsequent 26-month period.
The public sector groups had flatly rejected Government's first offer which would see them begin receiving outstanding money in 2013/2014.
In a June 3 letter to the unions, Government proposed that payment of the outstanding amount for the financial year 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 be paid in equal installments over five years.
International Drug Gang Busted --- 1.1 ton of Cocaine Seized on Sea --- Heist worth 42 Million Euros.
An international operation between Flensburg and the French and Spanish authorities has allowed the French Coast Guard to apprehend two Germans on board a yacht which was moving towards St. Maarten on July 2nd 2011 with 1.1 ton of cocaine on board. The operation started since September 2009 between the BKA and the French and Spanish authorities whose mission was to identify the perpetrators of a multinational group that was suspected of smuggling large quantities of cocaine from the Caribbean to Europe.
The Yacht it is believed left Grenada and anchored close to Venezuela before they began moving towards St. Maarten on the night of July 2nd 2011 when the two Germans were captured. A raid on the 13m long vessel led authorities to 1127 kilos of cocaine worth 42 million Euros announced a Flensburg Prosecutor. The illegal substance was hidden behind professional wall coverings inside the vessel. Authorities conducted searches in Hamburg and they managed to seize 400,000.00 Euros in cash and 900,000.00 in assets as well as documents and electronic devices.
Details on the heist were not made locally, but were reported in a German newspaper.
PDM OBJECTS TO APPOINTMENT OF NON-TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDER TO POSITION OF NIB DIRECTOR
Leader of the Peoples Democratic Movement, Doug Parnell has come out in objection of the new appointment for the post of NIB Director to National Insurance, in a release sent to RTC news.
Last night we learned that the Governor intends to appoint a non Turks and Caicos Islander to the position of Director of the National Insurance Board.
We do not accept this as appropriate or within the Governor’s remit to appoint a director who is a non Turks and Caicos Islander for some 3 years particularly when a General Election is due soon.
In the history of the board this would be a first. National Insurance Board is a Turks and Caicos Islands institution imagined, created and enshrined in law by both PDM and PNP Governments. However, it was under the watchful eye of the Wetherell Interim Government that brought us the collapse of TCIBank and the investment of the final 5.5M of NIB capital that is still at risk. Although we are under direct rule the Governor is not a Minister of Finance and should not confuse himself as such. We request that he gets his thinking in line with what would be more acceptable and appropriate action on behalf of the people at NIB.
The issue of whether or not the NIB director is also a Turks and Caicos Islander is not up for debate.
Any new director who does not fit this mandatory prerequisite will not be well received by the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands. We welcome persons to our country, however, not at the expense of directing, without interference, our own affairs or our dignity and express again our willingness to work with others towards improving our political, social and economic condition but this proposed action is outrageous and contemptible. We will fiercely resist any attempt to treat Turks and Caicos Islanders with disdain, while marginalizing us from the institutions that Political Governments have successfully built that administrative Government now seeks to alter without mandate.
That was a release sent to RTC News by the leader of the PDM, Doug Parnell.
Haiti - Travel : Flights between the Turks and Caicos Islands - Port-au-Prince
A new airline is preparing to offer flights, among others, between the Turks and Caicos Islands and Port-au-Prince, and Cap Haitien. Currently Skycruiser Airways has submitted plans to the Air Transport Licensing Authority (ATLA) to operate scheduled air services, from November 1st, 2011.
According to documents filed with the ATLA, points of departure, final destination and intermediate points of call are Providenciales, South Caicos, North Caicos, Grand Turk, Salt Cay, Nassau and Freeport in The Bahamas, Kingston Jamaica, Santiago, Puerto-au-Plata and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic; San Juan, Puerto Rico, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Cap Haitien and Port-au-Prince in Haiti.
If the new company gets the necessary approvals, its fleet will be composed of DH6, which have 19 seats, Jetstreams which have 30 seats and CRJ-2000/700 which have between 50 and 72 seats.
Caribbean leaders concerned about Turks and Caicos Islands
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of government have expressed concern on the situation in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) where Britain resumed direct administration of its overseas territory in August 2009.
The communiqué issued at the end of the 32nd regular meeting of the Conference of Caribbean Heads of Government in St Kitts on Monday noted that “the constitutional reform process had been completed though not to the full satisfaction of the Islanders.”
The TCI has associate membership within the 15-member regional grouping, and citizens there have been demanding an end to British rule and a return to parliamentary democracy.
London resumed direct administration of the affairs of the British Overseas Territory, disbanded the locally elected government and suspended the legislature after a Commission of Inquiry said it found widespread corruption under the administration of former premier Michael Misick.
Misick, who resigned in March 2009, after the commission made its findings public, has called on all Turks and Caicos Islanders, churches and political parties to put differences aside and "unite to fight the common enemy -- the British.”
Misick accused London of staging what he termed a "modern-day coup" in the Turks and Caicos Islands while the rest of the world was not watching.
In its communiqué, the regional leaders said that the citizens are expecting that elections will be held in the shortest timeframe possible, “in order to lead to a return to self rule and democratic and representative governance’.
The leaders said that have requested the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) “to continue to monitor the situation closely, in order to keep them informed.”
Injured Tiger Woods pulls out of Open Championship
Former world number one Tiger Woods has confirmed he will miss this month's Open Championship at Sandwich because of his troublesome left leg injury.
The 35-year-old has not played competitively since suffering a recurrence of the injury at the Players Championship in mid-May.
"Unfortunately, I've been advised that I should not play in the British Open," Woods said on his official website.
Woods has 14 major titles, four short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus.
Despite slipping to 17th in the current world rankings, Woods insisted: "I think my best years are still ahead of me and I'm very confident and optimistic about the future.
I am only going to come back when I'm 100% ready. I do not want to risk further injury.
"In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have competed at the Players, but it's a big event and I wanted to be there to support the tour. I've got to learn from what I did there and do it right this time and not come back until I'm ready."
Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club which organises the Open Championship, said: "I know how disappointed Tiger is not to be able to play in the Open this year.
"Naturally, we are sorry that a player of his calibre isn't able to join us at Royal St George's, but we wish him well in his recovery and hope to see him back soon, competing in front of the fans that love to see him play the game."
Woods, who was also recently forced to miss his first US Open since 1994, has been plagued by injury problems for much of the last three years.
Following his memorable US Open win in 2008, his most recent major title, Woods revealed he had a double stress fracture in his left tibia and also added that he had been playing for almost a year with a torn ligament in his left knee.
He subsequently had surgery and missed the next eight months, including that year's Open and PGA Championships.
Woods took five months away from golf in 2009/10 after his much-publicised marital problems but returned for the 2010 Masters.
He had Achilles trouble in late 2010 before suffering a sprained left knee and a mild strain to his left Achilles tendon after hitting out of the pine straw at this year's Masters at Augusta.
Women's World Cup: England 2-0 Japan
England's women booked a place in the quarter-finals of the World Cup thanks to victory over Japan in Group B.
Hope Powell's side held off some intense pressure from the Japanese before going in front when Ellen White superbly lobbed in from 22 yards.
They doubled their lead after the break when substitute Rachel Yankey took a touch and clipped in a smart finish.
In the last eight in Leverkusen at 1700 BST on Saturday England will play France, who lost 4-2 to hosts Germany.
The Germans topped Group A and go through to a quarter-final against Japan, who finished runners-up to England.
"We were very, very good today," said a delighted Powell. "You've got to respect Japan and the way they play, but we had a gameplan and we implemented it.
The ambition was to get out of the group and top the group and we've done that. We're in the quarters and we'll have to do our best."
England should not fear either side after a display of endeavour and quality in Augsburg, marked by two goals of supremely clinical finishing either side of the interval.
Japan, who had beaten New Zealand and Mexico in their opening Group B games, impressed with their neat approach play and movement, but they could not find an end product to match.
England knew they could still qualify for the quarter-finals even if they lost the tie, with Mexico not only needing to beat New Zealand in the other game but having to improve their goal difference too.
The Mexicans took an early lead to put pressure on England and Japan threatened when Kozue Ando and Yuki Nagasato fired in shots which forced Karen Bardsley to save low down.
White had a shot deflected wide at the other end, but with 15 minutes gone England's nerves were calmed when White fastened on to a ball from the back and, with Ayumi Kaihori off her line, expertly lofted into the net.
The Japanese, who were already guaranteed a last-eight berth, continued to force England back, but Powell's rejigged defence - Sophie Bradley came in for rested captain Faye White - stood up to the task.
Striker White was a constant threat herself, seeing one wonderful hooked volley fabulously tipped over by Kaihori, but England made the game safe after 66 minutes.
Yankey, on as a half-time sub, took a touch to control Rachel Unitt's left-wing ball in and beat Kaihori with a classy dink over the keeper and into the net.
They played the rest of the game out in relative calm, while New Zealand produced a terrific fightback in Sinsheim, scoring twice in stoppage time to earn a 2-2 draw with Mexico.
In Tuesday's other match Nigeria beat Canada 1-0 in Dresden, a third successive defeat for the Canadians.
England Ladies: Bardsley, Alex Scott, Unitt, Stoney, Bradley, Jill Scott, Clarke (Yankey 46), Asante, Ellen White (Bassett 90), Smith (Aluko 62), Carney.
Subs Not Used: Chamberlain, Faye White, Williams, Houghton, Susi, Rafferty, Brown.
Goals: Ellen White 15, Yankey 66.
Japan Ladies: Kaihori, Kinga, Iwashimizu, Kumagai, Sameshima, Sakaguchi (Iwabuchi 75), Miyama, Sawa, Ando (Maruyama 56), Ono (Kawasumi 82), Nagasato.
Subs Not Used: Yamago, Yano, Utsugi, Kamionobe, Tanaka, Takase, Fukumoto.
Shark fishing banned in the Bahamas
The Bahamas has banned shark fishing in its waters and prohibited the sale, import and export of shark products.
The new law will effectively turn all 630,000 sq km (243,000 square miles) of the nation's territorial waters into a shark sanctuary.
The ban was approved by Agriculture Minister Larry Cartwright in the capital, Nassau, on Tuesday.
The archipelago joins Honduras, the Maldives and Palau in outlawing shark fishing.
The government also increased shark-fishing fines from $3,000 (£1,900) to $5,000.
Sharks are considered at risk due to demand for their fins in Chinese cuisine - some 73 million of the sea predators are killed each year, environmentalists say.
Needing protection
In 1993 the Bahamas banned long-line fishing, which limited shark fishing and protected 40 species of sharks inhabiting its waters.
But shark fishing was not banned outright, and when a local seafood company announced last year that it planned to export shark meat and fins to Hong Kong, activists called for a new law to be introduced.
Environmentalists welcomed the ban. Neil McKinney, president of the Bahamas National Trust, which manages the country's resources, said sharks played an extremely important role in balancing the ecosystem.
"They desperately need protection if we're not going to drive them to extinction," AFP news agency quoted him as saying.
Tourism is a major industry in the Bahamas, and shark-diving earns it $80m a year in revenue, according to a recent survey.
The country's main island, New Providence, is home to Jaws Beach, where one of the Jaws films was shot. Last year, the remains of a boatman who had disappeared off the beach were found in the stomach of a tiger shark caught by an investment banker.
The US-based Pew Environment Group said each reef shark brought some $250,000 to the archipelago's economy.
Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette said he did not think the ban would affect relations with China, which has increased trade with the Bahamas in recent years.
"This is in keeping with the government's commitment to pursue conservation policies and strategies in order to safeguard the marine and terrestrial environment," the Associated Press quoted him as saying.