New South Korea exercises to test border tension
South Korea has said it will hold new large-scale military drills involving ground and air live fire on Thursday.
Artillery, jets and about 800 soldiers will take part, the government said, alongside separate naval exercises that began on Wednesday.
Tension has been high since North Korea shelled the South's Yeonpyeong island last month, killing four South Koreans.
Drills by the South on Monday near Yeonpyeong sparked Northern threats of retaliation that did not materialise.
An army spokesman said Thursday's drill would be held at Pocheon, 20km (12 miles) south of the border - about 50km from central Seoul.
Exercises have been held at Pocheon before, but this would be on an unprecedented scale, the spokesman said.
"The scale of mechanised assets taking place is enormous. When we would normally have 6 K-9 mechanised artillery, we'll have 36.
"We'll have the F-15 jets firing. We'll have choppers. You can say most of the mechanised assets taking part will be firing live ammunition," the spokesman said.
"We will retaliate thoroughly if the North commits another provocative act like the shelling of Yeonpyeong," First Armoured Battalion commander Choo Eun-sik told Yonhap news agency.
"Through this exercise [at Pocheon], we will demonstrate our solid military preparedness," he said.
The BBC's Kevin Kim in Seoul says this is the largest winter live-fire exercise ever conducted on land here.
Separately, a "routine" four-day naval firing exercise has begun off the east coast of South Korea, involving six warships and helicopters.
The North Korean shelling of Yeonpyeong shocked South Koreans.
It sparked the replacement of the country's defence minister and the development of a more active defence and deterrence policy among South Korean planners.
South Korea and the US - with which it has a long military relationship - had already been conducting large-scale military exercises, following the apparent torpedoing of a South Korean warship by the North on 26 March, which killed 46 south Korean sailors.
The pace of military drills has been stepped up in recent weeks, despite frequent denunciations from North Korea and its closest ally China.
Efforts to redirect the Korean issue back to the negotiating table have been unsuccessful.
China and the North say it is time to return to the six-nation talks about North Korea's nuclear programmes.
But the US, South Korea and Japan have said they will not return to such talks, which have previously involved rewards for the North if it cuts back on nuclear development.
After a visit to North Korea, the US politician, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, said North Korea agreed to let international monitors back into the country to inspect its nuclear sites.
China has also urged the North to invite staff from the International Atomic Energy Agency but there has been no word from the North on the subject.
"The six-party talks will be restarted again when the North Koreans display a willingness to change their behaviour," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
North Korea walked out of the six-party talks in April 2009 and expelled UN nuclear inspectors from the country.
New Start nuclear arms treaty 'headed for ratification'
The New Start nuclear treaty between the US and Russia has cleared a key procedural hurdle in the US Senate and now looks set to be ratified.
Senators voted to end debate on the issue, clearing the way for a final vote on the treaty, set for Wednesday.
Ratification would be a victory for President Barack Obama and the Democrats, who have pushed hard for it.
Some Republican senators oppose the treaty on a variety of grounds, though Mr Obama has called it crucial.
Treaty 'needed now'
"We are on the brink of writing the next chapter in the 40-year history of wrestling with the threat of nuclear weapons," Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry, a Democrat, said after the vote.
The 67 votes in favour of the parliamentary motion to end debate puts the treaty above the threshold needed for ratification at the final ballot, and Mr Kerry said he expected as many as 70 votes.
"In our nation's security interest we need a New Start treaty now," Republican Richard Lugar told reporters, dismissing the calls from others in his party to hold more hearings next year.
The New Start treaty would trim US and Russian arsenals to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads - a cut of about 30% from a limit set eight years ago. It would also allow each side visually to inspect the other's nuclear arsenal to verify how many warheads a missile carries.
The previous missile treaty expired more than a year ago, and Mr Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the New Start pact in April.
For the treaty to take effect, it needs the votes of two-thirds of the US Senate, or 67 if all 100 senators are present.
Top Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, John McCain and Jon Kyl, have said they oppose the treaty.
South and West See Large Gains in Latest Census
The Census Bureau rearranged the country’s political map on Tuesday, giving more Congressional seats to the South and the West at the expense of the Northeast and the Midwest — changes that will have far-reaching implications for elections over the next decade.
The reallocation of seats was based on a new decennial population count of 308,745,538 Americans. The total was up by just 9.7 percent over the last decade, the slowest rate of growth since the 1930s. Demographers attribute the decline in part to falling birth rates among whites and the slowdown in immigration because of the recession.
These are the first results from the census conducted this year, and they will be used to reapportion seats in Congress, and, in turn, the Electoral College, based on new state population counts. The figures will influence the landscape for the 2012 presidential race and the makeup of the Electoral College, with Republican-leaning states from the Sun Belt gaining more political influence at the expense of Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states.
According to the new counts, Texas will gain four seats, Florida will gain two, while New York and Ohio each lose two. Fourteen other states gained or lost one seat. The gainers included Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina and Utah; the losers included Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
If President Obama were to win in the next election the same states he carried in 2008, he would receive six fewer electoral votes under the new map. Yet that shift would be significant only if the race were very close.
It is also unclear if the gains will go mostly to Republicans, since more than three-quarters of the population gains in the last decade were members of minorities, populations that tend to vote for Democrats.
The changes followed a long-running trend of population growth in the South and the West, and loss in the Northeast and the Midwest. In 1910, the West made up just 7 percent of the American population, compared with nearly 25 percent today, said Robert M. Groves, the director of the Census Bureau. About 40 percent of the decade’s growth was driven by immigration, he added.
The release rang the opening bell for the inevitable battles over redrawing Congressional districts. With a presidential election just two years away, and Republicans enjoying momentum after their sweep of state legislatures in November, the stakes are high.
On the surface, Republicans would seem to have an overwhelming advantage. Most of the states gaining seats trend Republican, and most of those losing them tend to elect Democrats. What is more, Republicans will be well-placed to steer the process, with Republican governors outnumbering Democratic ones 29 to 20, with one independent, come January.
“Republicans are in the best position since modern redistricting began,” said Tim Storey, an expert on redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Of the 336 districts whose borders are drawn by state legislatures, Republicans have full control of 196, Mr. Storey said. Democrats control legislatures for 49; a further 91 are split. The rest would be drawn by divided legislatures or appointed commissions.
But population gains in the South and West were driven overwhelmingly by members of minorities, particularly Hispanics. The new districts will need to be drawn to reflect their numbers, opening potential advantages for Democrats.
“Just because Texas is getting four new seats does not mean Republicans will get four new Republicans to Congress,” Mr. Storey said. “You don’t have unfettered ability to redraw new boundaries.”
It is a complex landscape of shifting advantages, and lawyers for both parties are already designing legal strategies in the event of stalemates in state legislatures, where redistricting battles play out. The last census, in 2000, set off litigation in about 40 states. The real work of redrawing begins in February, when the Census Bureau releases detailed geographic counts for each state.
“You either have a deadlock or a compromise plan, and I don’t see a lot of compromise going on these days,” said Gerald Hebert, a lawyer who represents Congressional Democrats. “Parties really prepare for war on this thing.”
The census results provided the starkest warning yet that the survival of both political parties could turn on how their candidates appeal to greater numbers of Hispanics, particularly in Arizona, Florida and Texas. Still, the Hispanic population includes people who cannot vote because they are not American citizens.
In Texas, for example, more than 85 percent of the population growth has been minority, according to Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire. And even though Republicans control every statewide elected office and both chambers of the legislature, state Republican officials concede that the district lines will most likely be drawn so Democrats are in position to win as many as two of the new seats.
Legislatures are required to follow the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory voting practices, and Matt Angle, the director of the Lone Star Project, a Democratic policy group, warned that Republicans would face court challenges under the act if they “got too greedy.”
Even so, Democrats have struggled to make significant inroads in Texas in recent elections, with Mr. Obama losing by 12 percentage points in 2008.
Ohio, which has long been among the most influential presidential battleground states, is losing two House seats, bringing its total to 16, the fewest since 1820. The state has lost seats every decade going back to 1970, reflecting its painful economic decline as its industry contracted.
“It’s distressing to all of us, to anyone from Ohio,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio. “It’s a difficult thing because we lose a lot of influence that way.”
Arizona, with the second-highest population rise after Nevada, is the state most likely to become a new presidential battleground. Mr. Obama considered competing there two years ago, but decided against spending money in the home state of his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain.
White House advisers said the new census map still left plenty of paths to reach 270 electoral votes needed to win the election in 2012. The losses in eight Democratic-leaning states were expected, aides said, and were slightly offset by gains in Nevada and Washington.
“I don’t think it will have a huge practical impact,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday.
(SOURCE: New York Times)
Stuntman playing Spiderman fell about 30 feet
Broadway might need a superhero to save the new Spider-Man musical. "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," the most expensive production in Broadway history, suffered its fourth accident in a month when a stuntman playing the web-slinger fell about 30 feet into a stage pit during a preview Monday night. The safety tether that clips to his back failed to prevent the spill.
The performer, Christopher W. Tierney, was wheeled out of the Foxwoods Theatre on a stretcher, still in his costume, and taken by ambulance to Bellevue Hospital with minor injuries. He suffered broken ribs and internal bleeding, said a castmate, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the musical.
An uncle in Florida, Michael Tierney, said when reached by phone Tuesday night that he had spoken with his nephew a few hours ago. "He sounded pretty good," Tierney said, adding that his nephew was still at the hospital when he spoke with him.
In a statement, Actors' Equity said investigators determined that the accident was caused by human error. It gave no details but said additional safety measures are being undertaken.
A state Department of Labor spokesman said the cause was under investigation.
The fall was the latest setback for the troubled, $65 million show.
Conceived by Tony-winning director Julie Taymor and U2's Bono and The Edge, who wrote the music, "Spider-Man" has been more than eight years in the making. It has been plagued by delays, money woes and several other accidents, including one in which an actress suffered a concussion and another in which a performer broke his wrists in an aerial stunt. Its official opening has been postponed twice, to early February.
The huge costs — a 41-member cast, 18 orchestra members, complicated sets and 27 daring aerial stunts, including a battle between two characters over the audience — mean the 1,928-seat theater will have to virtually sell out every show for several years just to break even. The weekly running bill has been put as high as $1 million. (Tickets are $67.50 to $135 for weekday performances, $67.50 to $140 on weekends.)
A spokesman for "Spider-Man," Rick Miramontez, said in a statement that new safety measures ordered by the government after the latest accident have been adopted. Wednesday's matinee was canceled, but Wednesday night's show will go on, Miramontez said. (No performance had been scheduled for Tuesday.)
Leo Rosales, spokesman for the New York Department of Labor, said the show's producers had not yet presented new safety protocols and would do so on Wednesday. If the measures were inadequate, he said, the state won't let the show perform the complicated aerial maneuvers.
"If it takes longer, it will need to take longer," he said of the show's timing. "We need to be satisfied."
Taymor, the director, said in a statement: "An accident like this is obviously heartbreaking for our entire team and, of course, to me personally. I am so thankful that Chris is going to be alright and is in great spirits. Nothing is more important than the safety of our Spider-Man family and we'll continue to do everything in our power to protect the cast and crew."
One audience member who attended Monday's performance, Brian Lynch, said he knew of the previous mishaps and still wanted to come.
"I was making jokes about it earlier in the day," said Lynch, visiting from Hollywood, Calif. "I said if anyone got hurt I was ready to jump in and help out. I never thought it would happen, I thought they probably worked it all out. I really didn't think it would happen like it did. It was pretty horrific."
The accident happened during the show's big finale, when the Green Goblin drops Mary Jane and Spider-Man leaps to her rescue.
"But then he just kept falling, it seemed, and then everything went dark and then people, crew ran up to the stage and we heard the girl playing Mary Jane screaming from the pit," Lynch said.
"Spider-Man" might yet prevail. Other Broadway shows have struggled with getting their sets and stunts to work during previews, including "Mary Poppins," whose house set went off track in 2006, and "Titanic," which was plagued by numerous technical problems during a month of previews in 1997. Both were hits.
Mary Martin, who starred many times in productions of "Peter Pan," had numerous accidents, "beauts," as she flew about the stage. A year before she died, in a 1989 interview with the Chicago Tribune, she recalled smashing into a concrete wall during a rehearsal as she was trying to show the children in the cast that they shouldn't fear being in the air.
"It was like a cannon shot," Martin said. "I thought, `My God, these kids will never fly now,' never thinking that my arm might be broken. So we went right back and I said, `Now we're going to fly it like it should be,' and we did, and it went perfectly."
But "Spider-Man" — whose costs beat the previous most expensive Broadway show, the $25 million "Shrek The Musical" — has reached a dangerous level of attention: fodder for comics. Online, where parodies by "Saturday Night Live" and "Conan" poking fun of the musical's early technical problems had recently been eagerly passed around, the tone shifted Tuesday from jokey schadenfreude to mild outrage.
An actor from TV's "Modern Family," Jesse Tyler Ferguson, wisecracked: "I'm torn between wanting to see `Spider-Man' on Broadway and not wanting to see someone literally die doing musical theater."
The production — supervised by Juniper Street Productions, a management firm that has overseen such Broadway and Las Vegas productions as "The Producers" and "Promises, Promises" — has been under investigation by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration since Nov. 2 at the request of the state Labor Department, according to OSHA.
"It's certainly going to be continuing as a result of the latest incident," OSHA spokesman John Chavez said.
The state Department of Labor inspected 37 separate aerial maneuvers planned for the show at rehearsals in November and approved the use of all equipment in the show, Rosales said. "From what we saw back then," he said, the maneuvers appeared to be safe.
Miramontez said OSHA, Actors' Equity and New York State labor officials met with the "Spider-Man" company on Tuesday to discuss additional safety measures, and "it was agreed that these measures would be enacted immediately."
Tierney, who appeared in the national tour of "Moving Out" and in "Dirty Dancing" in Toronto, is the show's main aerialist and performs stunts for the roles of Spider-Man and the villains Meeks and Kraven the Hunter. The castmate who spoke on condition of anonymity said the cable to Tierney's harness snapped. But one special-effects expert raised the possibility that the rope was not hooked up securely.
Scott Fisher, president of Fisher Technical Services Inc. of in Las Vegas, which builds equipment for aerial stunts for the show, said the rope was supposed to be clipped to the stage at one end and the performer's back at the other.
"The stage crew would have been responsible for making the connection for hooking him up," Fisher said. "The actor is responsible for making the final check that he's good to go. It's sort of like packing your own parachute."
He said the script called for the stuntman to lurch forward at the end of a ramp as if leaping to Mary Jane's rescue. "He runs and stops and freezes in a position that you wouldn't normally be able to hold unless you had a little support from behind him," Fisher said. "If that's not hooked up and he leans forward, he's going to fall forward."
Fisher said the rope was not part of his company's onstage flight systems. But he said it was unlikely to have snapped: It is a 10,000-pound line.
After the actor fell, screaming could be heard coming from the pit.
"A voice yelled, `Someone call 911!' Then there was a silence," an audience member, fashion blogger Mariana Leung, wrote on the website NearSay.com. "A minute later, the stage was still dark. Then there was an announcement that the show would be delayed. A few minutes later, a second announcement that the performance would not continue. The lights came up."
Just last week, the show's lead producer, Michael Cohl, delayed the official opening for the second time, pushing it back from Jan. 11 to Feb. 7. He cited "some unforeseeable setbacks, most notably the injury of a principal cast member."
The first preview on Nov. 28 did not go well. The musical had to be halted five times because of technical glitches, and actress Natalie Mendoza, who plays Spider-Man's evil love interest Arachne, was hit in the head by a rope and suffered a concussion. She was sidelined for two weeks.
More time to comment on Kate Sullivan TCI Constitutional and Electoral Reform
Turks and Caicos Islanders have been given more time to comment on Ms Kate Sullivan, TCI Constitutional and Electoral Reform Adviser?s revised recommendations for constitutional and electoral reform in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI).
Following the interest shown by TCI residents throughout 2010, Ms Sullivan added a second opportunity for the public to comment on formal proposals for change. Her revised recommendations were published in November for this purpose and remain available for consideration and reaction until 14 January 2011.
Interested persons are welcome to make a written response to some or all of the recommendations. Such responses can be made via: their PO Box 68 Grand Turk
Ms Sullivan has published her report on the Governor's Office website and copies are available from the Governor's Office in Grand Turk at Waterloo and from the Governor?s Office in Providenciales at the Hilly Ewing Building.
Ms Sullivan further noted that once UK ministers have considered the areas for possible constitutional change, a draft constitutional order will be prepared to incorporate those changes.
This draft order will be published in TCI and opportunities for further public input will be provided before UK ministers decide on the submission of the final version for the Queen's Assent.
A new gospel showcase for TCI
Churches from all denominations from across the Turks and Caicos Islands have signed on to be of a new gospel showcase in the country entitled TCI Sunday Best.
As it name suggests, the religious event will be based on the popular BET television programme Sunday Best in which various singers compete for a top cash prize and recording contract one of the local organizers Hilton McCartney explained to the public that the first set of auditions will be held on January 7th in Grand Turk and on the 8th in Providenciales where 20 persons will be selected to compete on the last Sunday of every month until the elimination process is complete leaving a grand winner.
Interested persons are free to see whatever gospel and religious song of their preference.
Pedro Williams also one of the organizers will reveal more information in a later newscast..
Clyde Robinson placed on administrative leave
Director of Planning Clyde Robinson has been placed on administrative leave.
The news was confirmed today via a statement from the Government Press office.. It read quote: On 12 November 2010, the Turks & Caicos Islands Government (TCIG) issued civil proceedings against Mr. Clyde Robinson arising out of his acquisition of Crown Land and the sale on of that land at a substantial profit. Those proceedings have now been served on Mr. Robinson. Proceedings have also been issued against Susannah Robinson, but these have not yet been served.
TCIG's claim against Clyde Robinson alleges that he acquired the freehold of parcel 61112/286 in Long Bay Hills, Providenciales, from TCIG for $70,000 in March 2007, at a time when he was Director of Planning, owing a duty of good faith to TCIG and a duty not to put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicted with his duties and responsibilities.
The Land Transfer contained a covenant that Mr Robinson would use the land for his only or main residence and that he required the property for his own or exclusive use and that of members of his family.
The statement continued : In May 2007, Mr Robinson agreed to sell the parcel for $1,500,000 to a third party developer, Wawa Co Ltd. On 14 June 2007, Mr Robinson transferred the parcel to Susannah Robinson for no consideration, and in September 2007, the parcel was transferred to Wawa Co. Ltd for $1,500,000.
TCIG argues that Mr and/or Mrs Robinson have been unjustly enriched, and it is unconscionable for them to retain the proceeds of sale, and that they are liable to account to TCIG for the profit from the sale, equaling $1,220,000 after payment of a Crown charge, as well as interest and costs.
These are the next set of proceedings issued by the Civil Recovery team since they began their work at the end of 2009, and the second set of proceedings in connection with the 'flipping' of land.
In view of the serious allegations against Mr. Robinson he has been required to go on leave until these proceedings have been resolved. No decision has yet been taken in relation to possible disciplinary proceedings.
Robinson who had been Director of the Department for several years was instrumental in the approval of several projects across the Turks and Caicos Islands some of which have been heavily scrutinized by many.
He was also placed in the limelight during talk of a proposed Star Island development project off the Leeward Marina which never materialized as environmentalists and residents of the area lobbied hard against it .
Parts of the Nation's Capital without power for approximately 14 hours Sunday
The Turks and Caicos Utilities Limited (TCU), issued a public announcement regarding a planned outage that would affect the following areas between 12:30 am and 5:30 am on Sunday December 19, 2010.
South Base, Waterloo Road, Old Airport Road, Prison Road, North & South Back Salina, Old Power Station Road, Breezy Brae, Church Folly, Lighthouse Road & all roads leading off.
RTC News understands that while power should have been restored at 6am, the team suffered a major set back at the plant.
Due to an unexpected development that resulted in the replacement of one of their main transformers at the Power Station, the final restoration was not completed until 2:38 pm Sunday afternoon.
TCU in a press statement said it regrets the inconvenience caused to the public in the affected areas and wishes to apologize for the delay in restoration of power. The release further thanked Otis from Otis Construction.
Senior police officers in Turks and Caicos retired by governor
In a surprise move, Governor Gordon Wetherell, who heads the direct rule Interim Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, has announced that commissioner of police Edward Hall, deputy commissioner Hubert Hughes and a third assistant commissioner, whose name has yet to be confirmed, are being retired.
It appears that, while these top police officers are approaching retirement age, they are being excused early because of accumulated leave time. Their official retirement is due to take effect in March 2011.
However, this move has drawn particular attention locally as a result of reports that officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), who were recently contacted to assist the police management, will now in fact replace them. The replacements are under contract to serve for two years through March 2013.
Recent visits to Canada by Wetherell may have served to cement these arrangements Reportedly the RCMP officers are already present in the TCI and will continue to ?assist? until the TCI belonger police officially retire..
This follows the recent arrival of additional police officers from London's Scotland Yard -- also brought in to assist. Five experts were brought in for a short period, which will end soon. Andrew Rosindell, chairman of the British-TCI All Party Group and elected member of parliament of the Conservative Party in Britain, had called for a much larger group to be present for a longer period of time.
Many local residents are celebrating the retirement of Hall, who had been under pressure as a result of the gradual escalation of crime over his term of service. This escalation has recently experienced a dramatic upswing.
On a number of past occasions, Commissioner Hall publicly announced crime figures that he portrayed as light to moderate. However, in 2010, the police admitted that the incidents of crimes had in fact doubled. The 2010 crime wave was also marked by increased violence.
The arrival of Canadian replacements is, however, is receiving a mixed reception from locals. Other Canadian entities, including the Canadian-owned power company and Canadian-run health care system, have themselves been the target of discontent in recent weeks for the high costs and somewhat compromised service associated with their operations.
Many here believe that local or possibly British replacements would have been more easily accepted.
It appears Governor Wetherell will use the two year contract period to recruit or promote new police leaders.
The introduction of greatly increased penalties for unauthorised gun possession and use of guns in crime has also been recently pushed through by Wetherell.
Eight unsolved murders, including one of a policeman, and what appeared to be an organised crime wave in mid 2010 has brought increasing pressure on the governor to take action.
Hall?s apparent inability to resolve the alleged involvement of the police in crime has also been at the heart of discontent with his leadership. This problem has ranged from police sponsoring illegal jitney drivers to a recent drug bust involving a police official. Rumours have also been circulating that the guns and drugs confiscated by police have gone missing.
It appears that all the focused attention and moves by the governor has forced some criminal elements to back off, as there have been few serious crime issues in recent weeks. One exception is arson. There was a failed attempt by an unknown arsonist to set fire to the Labour Department building in Providenciales. This has refocused attention on the recent fire that destroyed most of a large primary school in Grand Turk.
Appointment of new Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Police
With early rumors flying around on Friday afternoon about the Commissioner & Deputy being sacked by HE Governor Gordon Wetherill, those were quickly dispelled by the Governor in a press release issued on Friday.
With the Commissioner of Police, Deputy Commissioner and one Assistant Commissioner all due to retire or start using up their accrued leave prior to retirement over the next few months, and another Assistant Commissioner nearing the end of his contract, discussions with the Canadian Government on assistance for the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands PoliceForce (RTCIPF) have increasingly focussed on filling crucial leadership positions in the Force.
This will provide the continuity of leadership necessary for reforms of the Force to be taken forward. It will also provide the time necessary for Officers of the RTCIPF to gain the further experience and training they need to succeed to command positions.
I am therefore pleased to announce that, during my visit to Ottawa last week, we reached agreement that two senior Canadian police experts will fill the posts of Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Police for a period of two years from March 2011 to coincide with when the current Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner go on pre-retirement leave.
I am very grateful to Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT)and its Anti-crime Capacity Building Programme for this generous offer which will ensure a managed succession for two of the most important posts responsible for the safety and security of the Turks and Caicos Islands and all who live here.
At the same time I would like to take this opportunity to thank Commissioner Edward Hall and Deputy Commissioner Hubert Hughes for their years of distinguished service to the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force. I look forward to a smooth transition and to announcing details of the new Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner in due course.