After Australia Oprah and Steadman Vacay in Figi Thru Christmas
Fresh off an Australian tour with her frenzied talk-show fans, Oprah Winfrey is taking a respite in the South Pacific island nation of Fiji, where the military regime wished her "a great time."
Fiji’s tourism minister said Winfrey was spending the Christmas holiday there and that officials wanted to respect her privacy. Local media reported she arrived Thursday and that she and longtime beau Stedman Graham were to stay until Dec. 26.
"We know she is here for a holiday and respect that, and the government obviously wants Winfrey to have a great time," Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, the tourism minister, said Saturday.
Tourism on Fiji is active, though relations with other countries have been strained by the lack of democracy since a December 2006 military coup. Australia and New Zealand imposed travel bans on Fiji leaders, and international trade sanctions have been imposed, but elections have only been pushed back.
Will Michael be No.1 this week?
Michael Jackson’s first posthumous studio album is in a tight race for the No. 1 spot on Billboard next week against reigning champ Susan Boyle and former queen Taylor Swift, according to early industry prognostications.
Jackson’s "Michael" could move around 200,000 to 225,000 by week’s end on Sunday, Dec. 19. But Boyle’s "The Gift" could also sell as many copies (if not more), as could Swift’s "Speak Now," which is currently at No. 2. The Billboard 200 chart will be published on Wednesday.
Next week’s second-biggest debut will probably come from R. Kelly’s "Love Letter," which is aiming for a start around 160,000 units. A year ago, the R&B star arrived at No. 4 with "Untitled," shifting 114,000.
Diddy Dirty Money’s "Last Train to Paris" might roll into the top 15 with possibly 60,000 to 70,000. Diddy last took a bow on the list back in 2006 when his "Press Play" entered at No. 1 with 170,000.
Other new albums on tap for a significant debut next week include 2010 "American Idol" runner-up Crystal Bowersox’s "Farmer’s Daughter" (45,000 to 50,000), Tank’s "Now Or Never" (perhaps 40,000 to 45,000), and Ciara’s "Basic Instinct" (30,000 to 40,000).
Marvin Sapp is Top Billboard Gospel Chart Artist for 2010
According to Billboard Magazine’s Year-End Charts, Marvin Sapp was the top Gospel artist, and had the top Gospel Album (Here I Am) and the top Gospel Song (The Best In Me) of the year. Additionally, for the third consecutive year, Verity Gospel Music Group is the Top Gospel Album Label of the year.
Verity Gospel Music Group secured four of Billboard’s list of Top-10 Gospel Album Artists; nine of the Top-25 Gospel Albums; two of the Top-10 Hot Gospel Songs Artists, and eight of the Top-25 Hot Gospel Songs – including the top three songs on this list: "The Best In Me;" "They That Wait;" and "God Favored Me."
"Our artists and our executives work tirelessly to bring the best Gospel music to the marketplace," says James "Jazzy" Jordan, Executive Vice President, Verity Gospel Music Group. "Their talent, consistency and commitment to excellence continues to make this label #1. With Marvin Sapp, this is surely a bittersweet honor for him, but he has earned every accolade that he has received."
Verity Gospel Music Group’s 2011 releases will include WOW Gospel 2011 and new music from John P. Kee, Deitrick Haddon, Donald Lawrence, Richard Smallwood and Kirk Franklin. Verity also has 25 Stellar Award nominations, and two Grammy Award nominations.
A division of Jive Label Group, Verity Gospel Music Group is comprised of Verity Records; GospoCentric Records; Fo-Yo Soul Entertainment; Quiet Water Entertainment; F. Hammond Music and New Life Records. Verity Gospel Music Group is based in New York and has offices in Nashville, TN.
Larry King Tonight ends on CNN
Veteran US broadcaster Larry King has presented the final edition of his long-running CNN talk show after 25 years with the cable news channel.
The 77-year-old fought back tears as he told his audience: "Thank you, and instead of Goodbye, how about So Long?"
President Barack Obama paid tribute to the star in a taped message, in which he said his show had "opened our eyes to the world beyond our living rooms".
Larry King Live has ended after more than 6,000 shows and 50,000 interviews.
Former tabloid editor and talent show judge Piers Morgan will take over his coveted time slot in January.
Thursday's edition saw former president Bill Clinton make his 29th appearance on the show via satellite from Arkansas, while crooner Tony Bennett sang The Best is Yet to Come.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared to announce he had made 16 December "Larry King Day" in his state as US TV stars Ryan Seacrest and Bill Maher joined King in his New York studio.
"This is not Larry's funeral. He's hopefully going to be in our living rooms for a lot of years to come," said comedian Maher.
"This is the end of a show, not the end of a man."
"You're not going to see me go away, but you're not going to see me on this set any more," King said.
The broadcaster has promised to "still be a part of the CNN family", saying he planned to host special one-off programmes.
The new draft legislation is now scheduled for early January
Draft legislation dealing with the licensing and operating of public service vehicles is now complete.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has announced that, after much detailed consultation with relevant stakeholders, taking into consideration the
views of Taxi Associations and Hotel operators, draft legislation dealing with the licensing and operating of public service vehicles is now
complete.
The draft legislation was scheduled to be taken before the Advisory Council at their last sitting for their approval and forwarded to the
Consultative Forum for debate. Regrettably, due to circumstances beyond the control of the Ministry of Home Affairs, this was not possible.
The new draft legislation is now scheduled to be presented to the first sitting of the Advisory Council in early January and to the Consultative
Forum shortly thereafter.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has expressed thanks to all concerned for their patience in resolving this matter and urges stakeholders to remain
patient, pending introduction of the new legislation and to continue to work together in the best interests of the industry and our economy.
The new legislation will bring order to the transport industry which the Ministry recognises, has been in need of a new legal platform for very
many years.
Beaches remain unbeaten
Beaches remain unbeaten as they handed the Jamaican All-stars the first defeat of the Monster energy Drink 20/20 competition which continued on
Saturday 11 December, 2010 at the Downtown Ball Park Providenciales.
Beaches won the toss and decided to take first strike and made an impressive total of 191 runs for 5 wickets from 20 overs. The top scorer
was Ricardo Brown with 43 runs 4 4s and 2 6s. Other useful contributions came from Anthony McKnight 33 runs and Osmond Sicard 33 runs.
Bowling for Jamaican All stars Calvin Aaron took 2 wickets for 28 runs from 4 overs and Damian young had 2 wickets for 57 runs from 40 Overs.
The All-stars in reply were dismissed for 111 runs from 17.2 overs. The top scorer was Austin Francis with 23 runs.
For Beaches, Martinique Williams captured 4 wickets for 20 runs from 4 overs.
Level one Coaching Course ends
The ICC in conjunction with the TCI Cricket Association recently conducted
a level one Coaching Course.
The course was conducted by Regional Development officer foe the Americas,
Mr. Wendell Coppin.
Twelve persons participated in the course, which ran from 9th to 12th
December 2010.
It was a competence-based Course involving both practice and theory.
The class room work was done at the Providenciales Police Canteen and the
practical at the Down Town Ball Park.
The Participants included:-
TERRENCE THOMAS DWIGHT MTYRIE
GAVIN BRUNO RICHARD BOBB
IAN GANESS WINSTON QUELCH
SEAN KHAN KARIM JACK
SONIA RIGBY JOHN DOLPHIN
JESSIE ALEXANDER NICHOLAS WATSON
The TCI Cricket Association will be embarking on a development programme
with the assistance of these coaches to ensure that Cricket is organized
at the grass roots level, so that Cricket can be further developed and
sustained in the TCI.
Forged cheques circulating in Providenciales
The general public of the TCI is being put on the look-out for forged cheques circulating in Providenciales.
The Royal Turks & Caicos Islands Police Force issued a brief press release today alerting the public of an apparent upsurge in the presentation of
Forged Cheques to business places in Providenciales for cash or as a form of payment.
The R.T&C.I.P.F is imploring business owners and public in general to first ascertain authorization of any cheque before completing that
transaction of that cheque. While this problem has been identified in Providenciales, the Police is still encouraging persons to be vigilant, especially during this holiday season.
US billionaire threatens to expose Turks and Caicos corruption
US billionaire threatens to expose Turks and Caicos corruption Apparently prompted by efforts by the British-led civil recovery team
(CRT) to recoup unpaid stamp duties, Boston attorney Michael Flynn,speaking on behalf of US billionaire Timothy Blixseth, said he intends to
expose all the corruption in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
This statement and others resulted from allegations that Blixseth sought to escape $1.7 million in stamp duty taxes on an upscale Turks and Caicos property he purchased in 2005, when the Michael Misick-led government was two years into its first term in office.
The CRT is not only attempting to recovery the $1.7 million in unpaid stamp duty owed to the TCI government but is also assessing a penalty of US$7 million for withholding the full amount.
It appears Blixseth's position is that Misick and his government, in league with the seller, somehow manipulated the duty or proceeds to the
seller in their personal favour.
In todays news posted by Caribbean News Now, Attorney Flynn is quoted as saying, 'The corrupt government of Michael Misick and the seller of the property (Gary di Silvestre), appear to have played some role in the original stamp tax transaction.'
The statements attributed to Flynn were reported in a Bloomberg Businessweek article published December 13, 2010.
The property, located on a small cay off the Chalk Sound/Silly Creek area of Providenciales, reportedly sold for $28 million. The documents listing the transaction in 2005 listed the sale at only $10 million. Stamp Tax is assessed at 10 percent of the purchase price. The tax paid was
approximately $1 million but allegedly should have been $2.7 million. A civil action has been filed in the Supreme Court to resolve the matter.
Attorney Flynn is reported to have denied that Blixseth ever saw or signed the original land transfer document.
The property, known as Emerald Cay, includes a 30,000 square foot home with a 3-story great room, 9 bedrooms and 3-story library. An award winning entertainment room, a 6,000 bottle wine cellar, 2 swimming pools, tennis and volleyball courts, a manmade beach and a marble driveway are included. The property is accessed by a remote control swing bridge from Providenciales.
The property was later listed for sale by Blixseth for $75 million then later reduced to $48 million.
Just this week the TCIG noted that it issued civil proceedings against Emerald Cay Limited, Worldwide Commercial Properties Limited, Timothy Blixseth and Andrew Hawes arising out of the substantial under payment of stamp duty owed on the acquisition of land parcel number 60400/219 known as Emerald Cay in Chalk Sound, Providenciales on 3 December and that those
proceedings have now been duly served.
TCIG's claim against the Defendants alleges that by a series of agreements of no or little practical or commercial value they concealed the true
value of the consideration paid for the Land in August 2006 leading to an underpayment of stamp duty owed under the Stamp Duty Ordinance. TCIG alleges that the true consideration paid was $28 million whilst it was recorded on the Land Transfer Certificate as just $10 million and that the Defendants conspired together to enter into a scheme to avoid payment of stamp duty of $2,730,000 properly due, instead paying just $975,000.
TCIG in its release on Monday of this week, said it is seeking a declaration that adequate stamp duty was not paid and that the Defendants
are liable for the outstanding stamp duty of $1,755,000, as well as a penalty of $7,020,000 under section 8(c) of the Stamp Duty Ordinance, as well as damages, interest and costs. This represents the latest set of proceedings issued by the Civil Recovery team since they began their work at the end of 2009, and the first set of proceedings in connection with the avoidance of stamp duty.
The Civil Recovery team is now involved in a substantial number of active recoveries and further sets of proceedings are expected to be brought.
TCI Community College (Grand Turk) presents Food Chest to Wellness Center
Turks and Caicos Islands Community College (Grand Turk) presents Food Chest to the Wellness Center, Grand Turk The President of the Grand Turk Campus of the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College (TCICC) Rev Julia Williams, along with the Student
Services Representative Ms Desire Adams, and the President and Vice President of the Student Guild, Denzel Penn and Adrian Williams, made a special visit to the Wellness Center at the old Grand Turk Hospital.
The Student Guild, as part of their community outreach initiatives for this semester, put on a food drive that began the latter part of November;
and last Wednesday, 8th December, a week ago today, those items were presented to the clients at the Wellness Center.
It was a heart warming experience remarked Denzel Penn, President of the Student Guild of the College. The caretakers do an amazing job of loving and supporting the clients, they must be amazing people to provide such selfless care added Adrian Williams, Vice-President of the Guild.
This project in particular was aimed at enlightening our students to the benefits of volunteer service. It is obvious that those in attendance
were touched to experience life at the Wellness Center and we plan to continue our work with the Center in the upcoming semester remarked
Desiree Adams, Student Services Representative at the College.
In addition to the food chest presentation, the students and Rev. Julia Williams, President of the College, shared Christmas carols and prayers
with the clients and caretakers who sang and danced, and enjoyed the beauty of the moment. It was wonderful to visit with our senior citizens
at the Wellness Center and to provide whatever assistance we can, particularly at this Christmas time, which is usually a time of sharing
gifts. My congratulations to the Caretakers at the Center who it is evident are doing a fantastic job caring for the clients. May they all
have a Merry Christmas and a bright and prosperous New Year, said Mrs. Williams.
Special thanks have been extended to the President, faculty members and students of the TCICC, and members of the community who contributed to this very worthy cause including the staff at Cees Department Store.