LIAT chairman resigns
Chairman of the regional airline, LIAT, Dr. Jean Holder, has tendered his resignation after six years on the job.
In a brief statement, LIAT said that Holder had submitted his resignation as director and chairman to the Barbados government, one of the three shareholder governments of the airline.
Holder was appointed to chair the cash-strapped airline in 2004, after 14 years in the diplomatic service and a further 30 years as the head of two regional organisations, the Caribbean Tourism Research and Development Centre and the Caribbean Tourism Organisation.
“He has confirmed his commitment to continue serving LIAT as Chairman, until someone is appointed to replace him.
“The chairman has indicated that there are a number of persons he felt it appropriate to inform before the news became public and he especially did not wish this announcement to be made while the company was in the middle of union negotiations. Unfortunately, the information was leaked to the media which began to press the Company for confirmation,” the LIAT statement added.
Second earthquake rattles Bermuda
The Island of Bermuda experienced an earthquake measuring 3.7 on the Richter Scale and lasting nearly eight seconds, according to scientific figures.
Geologist Martin Brewer said results from the Island's seismogram station in Warwick showed the quake took place around 5.30am on Sunday.
A handful of residents reported feeling the tremors, including a man who lives on Northshore Road in Pembroke.
The man told The Royal Gazette: “We heard a low frequency rumble and our ceiling fan shook on its mounts. It lasted about five or six seconds.”
According to Dr Brewer, a relative of his in Somerset also called on Sunday morning wondering whether the rumble and vibration of the windows in his house was an earthquake.
Dr Brewer said: “The attached seismograms show that it was an earthquake. The times shown are around 8.35 GMT which is 5.35am Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT).
“By comparison with the earthquake on April 18th I estimate that the magnitude of this one was about 3.7, about ten times less energetic than the April tremor.”
From the data he suggested the earthquake took place 17 miles from the seismograph station on Cobbs Hill Road.
A meteorologist with the Bermuda Weather Service said as of last night the US Geological Service website had still not confirmed the quake.
The website usually confirms tremors within an hour after taking place.
To date five earthquakes have occurred within 200km of the Island since 1988, according to the US Geological Survey Earthquake Database.
The last confirmed earthquake, which measured 4.6 on the Richter Scale, took place on April 18 ; it was the first in more than a decade.
Yankees place Jeter on 15-days
Derek Jeter went on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday because of a strained right calf, an untimely setback for the New York Yankees star as he pursues 3,000 career hits.
The Yankees put the All-Star shortstop on the DL for the first time since 2003, making the move prior to their game against Texas. Jeter limped off the field Monday night, four innings after he got his 2,994th hit.
"I'm still pleading my case," Jeter said, to no avail, about an hour before the Yankees made the announcement.
Jeter and his teammates hoped he would be able to get the historic hit at Yankee Stadium. New York has three games left against Texas on this homestand, then goes on a six-game road trip to Wrigley Field in Chicago, and Cincinnati.
He still might get his chance at home, too.
Jeter will be eligible to come off the DL during the middle of a three-game series at home against Milwaukee. The Yankees then start a six-game visit, taking on the crosstown Mets and Cleveland, before returning to the Bronx.
Infielder Ramiro Pena was called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He has played well for the Yankees in stints over the past couple of years.
Backup shortstop Eduardo Nunez took over after Jeter left the 1-0 loss to Cleveland.
Jeter is known for trying to play through injuries, but hobbled away in the fifth inning and immediately left the game. An MRI exam revealed a Grade I sprain, the mildest kind.
"That's what we are really talking about, that it will take at least a week," manager Joe Girardi said before the game.
Jeter said his calf had been sore for a couple of days. He said there was discomfort when he ran off the field in the top of the fifth -- it felt as if he'd been hit by a pitch, he said -- and more trouble when he jogged down the line after a flyout in the bottom half, ending his night.
LeBron clarifies postgame remarks
Everyone wanted the circus to end. That is, until the circus actually ended.
Such is life for the Miami Heat now, heading into the offseason.
A season of intense scrutiny, criticism, attention and intrigue ended without a championship, and while getting out of the spotlight for a while this summer may be of some consolation to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, nothing will completely soothe the fact that Year One of the Big Three ended with a loss in the NBA finals.
"There was really no way to prepare for a season like this," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Tuesday, after Miami gathered for its exit meetings.
Even at the end, James found his some of his words overly dissected and, he said, misinterpreted.
His offseason began with a clarification of something said after Sunday's night's season-ending loss to the new champion Dallas Mavericks, when part of his answer to a question about people being happy to see the Heat lose included the phrase "they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems."
On Tuesday, James tried to clean up the mess he inadvertently created.
"Basically, I was saying, at the end of the day, this season is over and with all the hatred not only myself, everyone else has to move on with their lives as well," James said. "They have to move on with their lives and their day-to-day, good or bad, and I do, too. At the end of the day, I've got to move on with my life. So it wasn't saying that I'm superior or better than anyone else, any man or woman on this planet. I'm not."
James' fourth-quarter offensive struggles in the finals are still a talking point, even with the series now over and Dallas celebrating its crown. There were some reports Tuesday that he had skipped the team meetings for a vacation in the Bahamas. Privately, some team members told him at times during the season to stop paying attention to news reports about the team entirely.
"I always feel like LeBron does a great job of dealing with things," Wade said. "No one, no athlete gets scrutinized more than he does, for good or bad things. And I always commend him for the way he handles it. A lot of people can say a lot of things about him, but if you're not in his shoes, if you don't go through the things that he goes through than you don't understand, you don't know how you would react to things and respond."
James offered some respect to the new champs later Tuesday. He posted a message on LeBronJames.com where he congratulated the Mavericks, especially Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Jason Terry. He also lauded the Miami fans, teammates, coaches, team president Pat Riley and owner Micky Arison.
James closed the message with this: "A lot to learn from this year, a lot to build on, and a lot of work to do this summer."
NBA Finals give ABC best summer ratings in decade
The NBA's championship-winning game for the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday was seen by nearly 24 million people, leading ABC to its most-watched week during the slow summer season in nearly 10 years.
The Nielsen Co. said the Mavericks' series victory over the Miami Heat was seen by an average of 17.3 million people over the six games. That's a little less than the viewership for last year's Lakers-Celtics series, which had the advantage of going to a climactic seventh game.
The fourth, fifth and sixth games of the Heat-Mavericks series eclipsed those corresponding games last year despite the presence of the NBA's most storied franchises. Many tuned in this year to see if LeBron James would win his first championship after his much-maligned decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Take away basketball, and it was a good week for NBC. Two editions of that network's "America's Got Talent" and the singing competition "The Voice" did better than any other broadcast network show.
For the week, ABC led with an average of 9.2 million viewers in prime time (5.5 rating, 10 share). CBS had 6.5 million viewers (4.2, 7), NBC had 5.8 million (3.5, 6), Fox had 4.5 million (2.7, 5), ION Television had 1.1 million (0.7, 1) and the CW had 790,000 (0.5, 1).
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a prime-time average of 3.5 million people (1.8, 3), Telemundo had 940,000 (0.5, 1), TeleFutura had 620,000 (0.3, 1), Azteca had 220,000 and Estrella had 190,000 (both 0.1, 0).
NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.2 million viewers (5.4, 11). ABC's "World News" was second with 7.1 million (4.7, 10) and the "CBS Evening News," on Scott Pelley's first week as anchor after Katie Couric's departure, had 5.7 million viewers (3.8, 8).
A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of June 6-12, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NBA Finals: Dallas vs. Miami, Game 6, ABC, 23.88 million; "NBA Trophy Presentation," ABC, 21.85 million; NBA Finals: Miami vs. Dallas, Game 5, ABC, 18.32 million; NBA Finals: Miami vs. Dallas, Game 4, ABC, 16.13 million; "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 12.93 million; "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday), NBC, 12.64 million; "The Voice," NBC, 12.31 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 9.33 million; "NCIS," CBS, 9.06 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 8.9 million.
Kim Clijsters is injury doubt for Wimbledon
World number two Kim Clijsters is a doubt for Wimbledon after re-injuring her ankle at the Unicef Open.
Clijsters, who recently missed two months with an ankle problem, stumbled in her 7-6 6-3 round two loss to Romina Oprandi but did not have treatment.
"I took some medication on the court that helped with pain in my knee but not my ankle," she said afterwards.
When asked if it would affect her playing at Wimbledon, she said "it depends on results from the hospital".
World number 82 Oprandi admitted she was amazed by her victory, but was aware that her opponent was not playing at full capacity.
"There is no bigger thing in tennis, it was a miracle," she said.
"I think maybe she was not 100% and I tried drop shots. It came out good for me."
Australian Open champion Clijsters, 28, originally injured her ankle dancing at her cousin's wedding in April.
After some time out to allow it to heal, she wore strapping on the injury when she competed at the French Open, where she made a second-round exit.
Her second early exit in consecutive tournaments leaves her short of practice for Wimbledon, a tournament which the four-time Grand Slam winner has never won.
It comes on the same day that reigning Wimbledon champion Serena Williams made a winning return to action at the Aegon International in Eastbourne, after a year out because of serious injury and illness.
Andy Murray says winning Queen's boosts Wimbledon hopes
Andy Murray will head to Wimbledon confident he can win his first Grand Slam title after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to win the Aegon Championships at Queen's Club.
The British number one beat Frenchman Tsonga 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 to claim his second Queen's Club title and 17th on the ATP World Tour.
And after reaching his first French Open semi-final earlier this month, Murray is confident he can improve on two Wimbledon semi-final appearances when play begins at the All England Club on 20 June.
"I'm going to Wimbledon with the feeling that I'm going to win the tournament," said Murray. "I don't think you can go in with any other attitude.
"I feel like I'm playing good tennis. I'll need to improve the next week or so and work on some things going into Wimbledon, but I need to play my best tennis throughout the tournament.
"I'll be switched on for the first match. I'm really looking forward to the next five or six days to get ready for it, because for me it's one of the most important tournaments of the year, if not the most."
Murray's victory on Monday made him the first British man since Francis Gordon Lowe in 1914 to win a second Queen's title, but the Scot said: "I don't think about that stuff too much, but you realise it is that long, it's a nice thing to be able to do and say that you've done it."
One of the highlights of Monday's final was an impromptu between-the-legs shot from the Scot as he closed in on victory in the final set.
"You don't get a chance to do that very often," he said. "It just came off. Sometimes it's just a reaction. I was up 40-0 in the game, probably wouldn't have gone for it if it was 30-30. But I felt comfortable on the court once I got ahead in the match.
"It was nice letting something off, hitting that shot, because I had been behind for 90% of the match."
And Murray described as "amazing" the queue that began forming at 0200 BST, with people trying to get tickets following Sunday's washout, and the Centre Court was a sell-out for the 12.30pm start.
"You never know how busy it's going to be when something like that happens," said Murray. "Because the decision to call it off was late [on Sunday], you don't know how many people are going to hear about it. It was packed - I think it's great."
Asked about Murray's trick shot in the penultimate game, a smiling Tsonga admitted that after his initial anger at losing the point he had said "good play", adding: "It's good to watch on the screen when you've lost."
The Frenchman served superbly throughout the first two sets but felt it had been imperative to keep the Murray return game at bay.
"During the game he can read the serve," said Tsonga, "Even if you hit the ball really hard he will put the ball in."
And Tsonga, the world number 19, will head to Wimbledon optimistic of at least matching last year's run to the quarter-finals, where he fell to Murray in four sets.
"I was disappointed that I lost today, not because I lost against Andy, but because I lost a final," said Tsonga. "It's difficult when you have this run in the tournament and just the last step you miss, but I feel good. I hope I will play well in the future."
US Open: Holder Graeme McDowell pleased with venue
Defending champion Graeme McDowell was in upbeat mood after playing his first practice round of the week at US Open venue Congressional.
McDowell played alongside fellow Irishman Shane Lowry and qualifier John Ellis and said he was "buzzing".
"My energy levels are good and I really enjoyed my practice round," said McDowell, who triumphed at Pebble Beach last year.
"The golf course is up to speed and I can see a way around it."
McDowell added that the course was a different proposition to what he had faced during a reconnaissance visit to Maryland a number of weeks ago.
"Then it was cold, it was wet and a difficult test.
"We enjoyed the golf course this morning and I did have a little spring in my step.
"It's very different to be here as the defending champion and very exciting to come to a golf course and I guess know that you have the capability to win it.
"Typically, when you come to a US Open type set-up, you're always in awe of it and of how difficult it is.
"But if you know you can do it, you can win over 72 holes on one of the toughest tests there is, it gives you a lot of confidence."
McDowell acknowledged that the Maryland venue will be a more exacting examination of the long game than was the case 12 months ago at Pebble Breach.
"It's going to test every aspect of the game. You've got to drive it well.
"By modern standards, Pebble Beach is not the longest golf course but this golf course is long.
"You've got to drive it and hit three woods and really position it well off the tee as these greens are really, really difficult.
"(With the approach shots) You have to keep it under the flags. Over the back of these greens is typically dead.
"You are really going to have to play smart going into these greens."
McDowell has confirmed that he will compete in the Dunlop Phoenix event in disaster-ravaged Japan in November.
"Like everyone, I have been truly saddened by the hardship and suffering caused to so many Japanese people," said McDowell.
"I look forward to trying to bring some joy to the people of Japan."
McDowell played in the tournament in 2002 when he finished in a share of 44th place.
Jo Jackson and Lizzie Simmonds seal Championship spots
Jo Jackson and Lizzie Simmonds sealed their places in Great Britain's world championship squad with wins at the National Championships in Sheffield.
Both swimmers failed to qualify at the first trials in Manchester in March but were lucky second time round.
Jackson produced her fastest time for two years to win the 400m freestyle in one minute 58.32 seconds.
Simmonds won the 200m backstroke in a time of 59.86 seconds to take the last squad place left for the event.
The return to form of Olympic bronze medallist Jackson was particularly heartening after 18 months of ill-health and severe asthma problems.
"I wanted to go quicker but to get the qualifying time and book my spot for the worlds, I can't explain how happy I am," she said.
"This time last year I didn't think it would happen so I am so relieved and that is what the smile is for.
"It has been really hard but I put in a lot of effort these last few months changing so much and its definitely starting to pay off."
Simmonds said the difference between her performance in Manchester and the one in Sheffield was all down to a more positive mental attitude.
"I've just been enjoying it," she said.
"I had a dip there and found it quite hard to pull myself out of that.
"With not qualifying in the 100 I got a bit more down and when I didn't qualify in the 200 it was the be all and end all.
"I then reassessed it and looked at my swimming and thought 'this is something I should love doing' and I do love doing it."
The world championships take place in Shanghai from 16-31 July.
Fed chief Bernanke warns of US debt ceiling threat
The chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has warned that the country's creditworthiness is at risk if its borrowing limit is not raised.
He said the US could lose its coveted AAA credit rating if Congress did not vote in favour of lifting the $14.3 trillion (£8.7 trillion) debt ceiling.
If there is no deal by August, the US may start defaulting on obligations.
Vice-President Joe Biden and congressional leaders have resumed efforts to find a bipartisan solution.
They are trying to reach an agreement that would tie spending cuts with an increase in the debt limit. They are expected to discuss annual spending levels, budget process reforms, taxes and healthcare benefits.
"We're making real progress, we're down to the tough stuff now and everybody's still in the room," Mr Biden said after Tuesday's meeting.
President Barack Obama and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, want an agreement by 4 July.
'Wrong tool'
At a conference on Tuesday organised by a think tank, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Mr Bernanke said any delay in the US government making payments could cause chaos on global financial markets.
It could also damage the dollar's status as a reserve currency, he warned.
Mr Bernanke said he understood the desire of many politicians to use the deadline to force some necessary and difficult policy adjustments, but said the debt limit was "the wrong tool for that important job".
"Failing to raise the debt limit would require the federal government to delay or renege on payments for obligations already entered into."
"Even a short suspension of payments on principal or interest on the treasury's debt obligations would cause severe disruptions in financial markets and the payments system."
In addition, Mr Bernanke said US government debt risked being downgraded, creating fundamental doubts about the nation's creditworthiness.
Long-term damage to the "special role" of the dollar and of treasury securities in global markets was also possible, he said.
Instead of allowing a default, Democrats and Republicans needed to develop a credible long-range plan to rein in the nation's budget deficit, Mr Bernanke added.
An increase of $2.5 trillion would allow the government to operate until early 2013.
He suggested stabilising the deficit as a proportion of the total economy, and lowering the figure over time. Deficit-reduction goals should be set and enforced with a mechanism triggering automatic cuts.