2 Live Crew co-founder Christopher Wong Won dead at 53
2 Live Crew co-founder Christopher Wong Won --famously known as Fresh Kid Ice -- has died, according to a tweet from former group member Luther "Uncle Luke" Campbell.
"My Condolence goes out to the family Chris Wong Wong Fresh Kid Ice of the 2 Live Crew who just passed away, Campbell tweeted this morning. "People we lost a legend."
Fresh Kid helped to form the legendary hip-hop group along with DJ MR. Mixx and Amazing Vee in 1984 and later met up with Campbell, who signed them to his record label. Won was a noted advocate for First Amendment Rights after 2 Live Crew's 1989 album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be, was deemed legally obscene.
According to TMZ, Fresh Kid's manager said Won died on Thursday at 7:50 a.m. in a Miami hospital due to a medical condition.
Miami rapper Rick Ross also offered his condolences this morning upon hearing of Won's death.
"Dam! Just got call we lost 2 Live crew legend Kid Ice this morning! RIP," he tweeted.
Source-ABCNews
Contracts and Procurement Unit Hosts Contractors Workshop Around the Islands
The Contracts and Procurement Unit within the Office of the Deputy Governor in collaboration with the Project Management Division in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing and Planning recently hosted a 'Contractor's Workshop' around the TCI.
The workshops commenced on Thursday 29th June in Salt Cay, followed by meetings in Grand Turk, South Caicos, Middle and North Caicos and ended in Providenciales on Thursday 6th July.
The objective of the workshops were to bring more awareness primarily to the Turks and Caicos Islands Government (TCIG) capital program and to a lesser extent the annual maintenance works program by educating and exposing current and potential contractors to the vast array of opportunities that exist.
The list of current and open tenders can be found on TCIG's website at https://gov.tc/government-tenders/. In addition, TCIG's Annual Procurement Plan which details all capital projects, the approved budget for the project and the proposed quarter the project will be released can be found at https://gov.tc/other-procurement-notices.
It is anticipated that the majority of projects will be released by the Contracts and Procurement Unit and the Project Management Division between July to December. Due to this, we would encourage interested persons to check the website regularly. Moreover, it is the intention of the team to conduct follow-up meetings across the islands throughout the course of the current financial year.
2017 ESPYs: Complete winners list
The 2017 ESPYs were one for the books, with star athletes like Kevin Durant, Michael Phelps, Simone Biles and the New England Patriots taking home some of the top honors.
The last award of the night for Best Team went to the Golden State Warriors. But there were so many others who left the show Wednesday night holding a trophy.
Here are the winners below:
Breakthrough Athlete
Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys
Record-Breaking Performance
Michael Phelps, most Olympic gold medals
Best Coach
Bob Hurley Sr.
Best Moment
Chicago Cubs
Best Game
Patriots vs. Falcons, Super Bowl 51
Best Championship Performance
Kevin Durant, NBA Finals
Best Play
Aaron Rodgers to Jared Cook, Playoff game against Dallas Cowboys
Best Female Athlete
Simone Biles
Best Male Athlete
Russell Westbrook, NBA
Best Team
Golden State Warriors, NBA
Best Upset
Mississippi State defeats Conneticut, NCAAW Final Four
Best NFL Player
Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers
Best WNBA Player
Candace Parker, Los Angeles Sparks
Best Male College Athlete
Deshaun Watson, Clemson NCAA football
Best Female College Athlete
Kelly Barnhill, Florida softball
Best Female Action Sports Athlete
Anna Gasser, snowboard
Best Male U.S. Olympic Athlete
Michael Phelps, swimming
Best Male Athlete with a Disability
Steve Serio, wheelchair basketball
Best Female Athlete with a Disability
Becca Meyers, swimming
Best Comeback Athlete
Jordy Nelson, NFL
Best NHL
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Best MLB
Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
Best Driver
Lewis Hamilton
Best Male Action Sports Athlete
Mark McMorris
Best Fighter
Demetrious Johnson
Best Male Golfer
Sergio Garcia
Best Female Golfer
Ariya Jutanugarn
Best Male Tennis Player
Roger Federer
Best Female Tennis Player
Serena Williams
Best MLS Player
David Villa
Best Jockey
John Velazquez
Best Bowler
Jason Belmonte
Source: ABCNews
Venus Williams beats Johanna Konta in semi-final
Briton Johanna Konta's hopes of a first Wimbledon final ended with a straight-set semi-final defeat by five-time champion Venus Williams.
The 37-year-old American 10th seed played superbly to win 6-4 6-2 on Centre Court and set up a final against Spain's Garbine Muguruza.
Sixth seed Konta, 26, had hoped to become the first British woman in a Wimbledon singles final since 1977.
She will break into the top five for the first time in the next rankings.
Virginia Wade, the last British woman to win the title, 40 years ago, said: "Maybe 41 years will be her number.
"It was sad she couldn't come through in an anniversary year, and it's so long since we had a winner, but I think next year she could make it, or make it to the final and progress that little bit more."
Williams is the oldest Grand Slam singles finalist since Martina Navratilova finished runner-up at Wimbledon in 1994.
Source-BBC
Daimler accused of selling over 1 million cars with excess emissions
Daimler AG has been accused of selling over a million cars with excessive emissions in Europe and the U.S., Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said on Wednesday, citing a search warrant issued by a Stuttgart court.
Two months ago Stuttgart prosecutors searched Daimler sites in Germany following allegations of false advertising and the possible wrongful manipulation of exhaust gas treatment systems in diesel cars.
The Stuttgart local court's search warrant triggered the searches on May 23, Sueddeutsche Zeitung said.
According to that document, more than 1 million cars with excessive emissions, including various luxury Mercedes-Benz models, were sold in Europe and the U.S. between 2008 and 2016, said Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which researched the matter with regional broadcasters WDR and NDR.
A Daimler spokesman declined to comment on the continuing investigation by local prosecutors, adding the carmaker was fully cooperating with the authorities.
The cars in question are powered by engines codenamed OM 642 and OM 651, with prosecutors examining the possible use of defeat devices to manipulate emission levels during tests, the newspaper said.
There is a risk that the vehicles affected in Europe could be banned in the region, the newspaper said, again citing the search warrant.
The Daimler spokesman declined to comment on the report, describing it as "speculation," apart from saying the company did not see any danger of its cars being banned.
A spokesman for Stuttgart prosecutors declined to comment while Germany's transport ministry couldn't be reached for comment.
Source- Automotive News
Air Zimbabwe lays off half its workforce amid financial woes
Zimbabwe's state-owned airline has laid off 200 workers, roughly half of its staff, with immediate effect.
The job losses are part of a turnaround strategy to bring struggling Air Zimbabwe back to profitability from a $300m (£230m) debt.
Last month the EU banned it from using its airspace, citing safety concerns.
There have been major changes at the national airline since President Robert Mugabe's son-in-law took over as chief operating officer last year.
"We were overstaffed by a lot and we are also trying to weed out people without the right qualifications," the airline's chairwoman Chipo Dyanda said on Wednesday.
"The retrenchment is meant to give space to the airline so that we can redeploy the money saved back into the company."
An Air Zimbabwe spokesperson told state media that management has also been trimmed from 28 to just 12 and the finance department from 36 to 17.
The airline has struggled to keep afloat over the last decade and plans to carry out a restructuring exercise that will include retraining for all staff, including top management.
Unconfirmed reports say that a name change is also in the pipeline - a move many believe is an attempt to ring-fence the airline's debt and reduce the threat of creditors seizing the planes.
Source-BBC
Google announces London cloud computing data centre
Google has revealed it has built a London data centre for the cloud computing services it rents to third parties.
The facility is its second in Europe, after Brussels, and promises to provide faster access times to nearby clients.
Google is currently the third most capable cloud computing service provider, according to a recent study.
But the report, by Gartner, suggested Amazon and Microsoft had a clear lead.
The technology consultancy added that in terms of sales to the "cloud infrastructure as a service" market, Google's share was also a "distant third".
Until now, the search giant has focused on opening data centres for its cloud computing platform in the US and Asia, where it has bases in Singapore, Taiwan and Tokyo.
But in announcing the London centre, it also disclosed plans to open facilities in Finland, the Netherlands and Frankfurt.
"GCP [Google Cloud Platform] customers throughout the British Isles and Western Europe will see significant reductions in latency when they run their workloads in the London region," said product manager Dave Stiver, referring to processing delays caused by the distances data has to travel.
"In cities like London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Amsterdam, our performance testing shows 40% to 82% reductions in round-trip latency when serving customer from London compared with the Belgium region."
A spokeswoman for the company added that the decision to build a London centre had been taken before the Brexit vote and was therefore unrelated to speculation that the UK's data privacy laws may diverge from the EU's in the future.
Google's platform allows clients to offload data processing tasks and information storage, including support for apps they may offer to the public and analysing feedback gathered from internet-connected devices.
By charging customers for the amount of compute time they use rather than a flat rate, Google seeks to provide IT departments with a cheaper alternative to maintaining their own data centres.
The company's existing customers include the Telegraph newspaper, Coca-Cola and the online education service Khan Academy.
At present, GCP offers fewer features than Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, but it is catching up, according to Gartner.
"Google uses deep discounts and exceptionally flexible contracts to try to win projects from customers that are currently spending significant sums of money with cloud competitors," its June report said.
And that had led some companies to use Google to supplement their use of Amazon or Microsoft's rival platforms.
Source-BBC
Gartner added: "GCP is increasingly chosen as a strategic alternative to AWS by customers whose businesses compete with Amazon."
Last month it emerged that Wal-Mart had urged its IT vendors not to use Amazon's service because it did not want its "most sensitive data... sitting on a competitor's platform".
Google does not disclose revenue for its cloud platform, but analysts estimate that it generated about $1bn (£776m) of sales last year and forecast it will double that amount in 2018.
FORECAST FOR TODAY AND TONIGHT THURSDAY 13TH JULY 2017
GENERAL SITUATION: A BROAD LOW-LEVEL TROUGH FEATURE FORMED FROM THE REMNANTS OF FORMER TROPICAL DEPRESSION FOUR OVER THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS CONTINUES TO WEAKEN AS IT SHIFTS WESTWARD.
TURKS & CAICOS ISLANDS
WEATHER: PARTLY TO MOSTLY SUNNY AND HOT WITH ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS TODAY. MOSTLY FAIR WITH THE CHANCE OF ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS TONIGHT.
ADVISORY: SMALL CRAFT SHOULD BE ALERT FOR GUSTY WINDS AND HIGHER SEAS IN OR NEAR HEAVY SHOWERS OR THUNDERSTORMS.
WINDS: EASTERLY AT 10 TO 15 KNOTS OVER OPEN WATERS.
SEAS: 2 TO 4 FEET OVER THE OCEAN.
DAYTIME HIGH TEMPERATURE: 92F 33C
OVERNITE LOW TEMPERATURE: 79F 26C
SUNRISE: 6:29AM SUNSET: 8:03PM
MOONSET: 10:22AM MOONRISE: 11:16PM
HIGH TIDE: 11:16AM LOW TIDE: 5:30PM
HIGH TIDE: 11:41PM LOW TIDE: 6:08AM FRI.
EXTENDED FORECAST: A TROPICAL WAVE ACROSS PUERTO RICO WILL CONTINUE WEST THROUGH THE UPCOMING WEEKEND INTO THE BAHAMAS BY SATURDAY AS A RIDGE NORTH OF THE AREA WILL SHIFT NORTHWARDS OF THE AREA AS THE TROUGH CONTINUE WESTWARD, THEN REBUILD AND MEANDER ON SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT CELEBRATES COMPLETING FIRST YEAR OF SUCCESSFUL BREAKFAST PROGRAMME
Popular Italian Restaurant hosts intimate family style dinner in its enchanting pizza garden, raising over $8,500 for the charity’s new food bank project.
On Saturday 8 July 2017 almost 100 guests filled the charming pizza garden at Bella Luna to dine al fresco in support of Food for Thought who have finished the first year of their breakfast programme on a high note, with teachers reporting increased concentration and improved attendance in their classes.
Lucky diners were treated to delicious fare donated by Bella Luna - including caprese salad, a variety of artisan pizzas, homemade meatballs with spaghetti, and mouth-watering tiramisu. They also enjoyed a discounted cash bar, and a raffle sponsored by Turks & Caicos Banking Company, while reveling in the musical talents of Brentford and Brenten Handfield. There was also a pop up shop on the night, with a night’s stay donated by Amanyara helping to boost sales.
The owner of Tangled Hair Salon, Brigitte Wildt, kindly ran an accompanying promotion o.n the same day, offering special deals to customers - with all funds raised being donated to Food for Thought.
Co-founder of the charity Karen Savory thanked supporters and donors, especially Food for Thought’s breakfast programme partners: Quality Food Centre, Tropical Shipping, Lew 1 Shipping and Caicos Express Airways; as well as Partner Sponsor Sotheby’s International Realty. Tribute was also paid to the charity’s invaluable honourary member, Joan Connolly-Gregg, for all of her hard work and support.
Karen also took the opportunity to announce Food for Thought’s plans to expand its reach in the new school year - to the ten government schools not currently in the breakfast programme. The new food bank programme will seek donations of non-perishable breakfast items to fill Breakfast Boxes in each of the guidance counsellor’s offices, to discretely provide some food to those students most in need of a nutritious breakfast.
Food for Thought co-founder Jeanne Savory said “We are so grateful to Cosimo and his superb Bella Luna team for hosting such a delightful evening, and for donating all the wonderful food! They went above and beyond to ensure our guests had a magnificent night. Everyone has been so complimentary of the amazing food, fantastic service and close attention to detail.
The $8,500 raised at this event will go a long way towards launching our food bank project, and help to subsidise the Breakfast Boxes to ensure at least ten children from each of those government schools can receive something for breakfast every school day. We have spoken to the schools, who have confirmed the urgent need for the Breakfast Boxes so we are pleased to be able to expand in our second year, thanks to such great community support.
However, we still need help. We are calling on local businesses to come on board and join up to become corporate sponsors. We have packages for all business sizes. Individual sponsors can also do their part by donating to the food banks, sponsoring a child for just $200, or by giving monthly donations.”
Food for Thought would like to thank the following generous sponsors of their event: Cosimo and Bella Luna, Amanyara Resort, Turks & Caicos Banking Company, Island Fire Supplies, Sotheby’s, Spa Tropique, Goldsmith, SURFside Ocean Academy, Point Grace, Parallel 23, Atelys, Needles and Pins Upholstery, Caribbean Outpost, Turquoise Distribution, Atabeyra, Bark + Bliss, Thai Orchid, Sharon Weil Hornstein, After5 Island Concierge, Freediving for Me, Swift Delivery Services, Islehelp, Tangled Hair Salon, Brentford & Brenten Handfield, Eustace, Jovan & Sanjay, Theresa, Kathleen and Melanie, and as always Richard & Robin Savory.
Haiti revives army, raising fears
After two decades with no army, Haiti has announced plans to rebuild its military to handle disasters and smuggling, though some fear the force could return to misdeeds, and be a tool of oppression.
The poorest country in the Americas has announced an initial recruitment of 500 men and women aged 18 to 25, invoking the need to "reclaim national sovereignty" as a 13-year UN peacekeeping mission, known as the blue helmets, comes to an end.
The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was deployed in 2004 to stem violence following the sudden departure of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and is set to leave in October amid an improving security situation and a successful electoral process after two years of political turmoil.
It will leave behind a residual training force of international police officers.
"The departure of the blue helmets is a challenge, but it is something we have planned for," Defence Minister Herve Denis told AFP.
The government says it plans to deploy troops along the border with the Dominican Republic in the fight against smuggling, and in regions hit by natural disasters.
Denis added it will also wage war on terrorists: "Even if there isn't a high threat-level, we still have regional responsibilities," said Denis, while recognising that, for the time being, the chronically unstable country is not being threatened by any external enemies.
Re-forming an army is merely a requirement of the country's constitution, which calls for a military alongside the police, Denis said, but added he prefers to use the term "defence and security force."
"I want people to understand that it's a new kind of institution that we want to create, one which is with the country in its quest towards development," he said.
A major part of that rebranding effort is the institution's checkered past.
Haiti's armed forces were dissolved in 1995 by then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted in a military coup seven months after he took power in 1991 -- bringing an end to decades of political interference and dozens of coups.
Source-AFP