PUBLIC FORECAST FOR TODAY AND TONIGHT TUESDAY 11TH OCTOBER 2016
GENERAL SITUATION: A NEARLY STATIONARY FRONT IN THE VICINITY OF THE SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS WILL CONTINUE TO DISSIPATE WITH FRESH TO STRONG WINDS PREVAILING OVER THE ISLANDS IN THE WAKE OF THE FRONT.
SPECIAL WARNINGS: BOATERS AND BEACHGOERS SHOULD EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION DUE TO ROUGH SURF AND THE RISK OF DANGEROUS RIP CURRENTS ALONG NORTH AND EAST COAST BEACHES.
NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL BAHAMAS
WEATHER: PARTLY CLOUDY, WINDY AND COOL WITH THE CHANCE OF A BRIEF PASSING SHOWER OR TWO THROUGH TONIGHT.
ADVISORY: SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT
WINDS: NORTH TO NORTHEAST AT 15 TO 25 KNOTS BUT HIGHER IN MODERATE TO LARGE SWELLS OVER OPEN WATERS
SEAS: 5 TO 8 FEET OVER THE OCEAN
TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
WEATHER: PARTLY CLOUDY WITH THE CHANCE OF A BRIEF SHOWER OR TWO THROUGH TONIGHT.
WINDS: NORTHWEST TO NORTH AT 10 KNOTS OR LESS BUT HIGHER IN MODERATE TO LARGE SWELLS OVER OPEN WATERS.
SEAS: 3 FEET OR LESS OVER THE OCEAN
DAYTIME HIGH TEMPERATURE: 86F 30C
OVERNITE LOW TEMPERATURE: 74F 23C
SUNRISE: 7:06AM SUNSET: 6:46PM
MOONRISE: 3:40PM MOONSET: 3:17AM WED.
LOW TIDE: 10:07AM HIGH TIDE: 4:24PM
LOW TIDE: 10:51PM HIGH TIDE: 4:45AM WED.
EXTENDED FORECAST A BROAD HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE WILL PREVAIL OVER THE BAHAMAS AS A SURFACE TROUGH ASSOCIATED WITH TROPICAL CYCLONE NICOLE WILL PREVAIL ACROSS THE SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS THROUGH THE FORECAST PERIOD.
FORECAST FOR WEDNESDAY
WEATHER: PARTLY SUNNY AND WINDY WITH THE CHANCE OF A BRIEF PASSING SHOWER OR TWO IN THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS, MOSTLY SUNNY WITH A FEW BRIEF SHOWERS ELSEWHERE.
WINDS: NORTHEASTERLY AT 15 TO 25 KNOTS THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS AND LIGHT AND VARIABLE IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS OVER OPEN WATERS
SEAS: 5 TO 8 FEET IN THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS AND LESS THAN 3 FEET IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS BUT HIGHER IN MODERATE TO LARGE NORTH TO NORTHEAST SWELLS OVER THE OCEAN.
FORECAST FOR THURSDAY
WEATHER: PARTLY SUNNY AND BREEZY WITH THE CHANCE OF A BRIEF PASSING SHOWERS OR TWO IN THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS, MOSTLY SUNNY WITH A BRIEF SHOWERS ELSEWHERE.
WINDS: NORTHEASTERLY AT 15 TO 20 KNOTS IN THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS AND LIGHT AND VARIABLE IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS OVER OPEN WATERS
SEAS: 4 TO 6 FEET IN THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS AND LESS THAN 3 FEET IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS BUT HIGHER IN MODERATE TO LARGE NORTHEASTERLY SWELLS OVER THE OCEAN
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK: PLEASE SEE LATEST NEWS ITEM ON TROPICAL STORM NICOLE LOCATED A FEW HUNDERED MILES SOUTH OF BERMUDA, ELSEWHERE TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 5 DAYS.
MARINE FORECAST FOR MONDAY, 10TH OCTOBER, 2016
MARINE FORECAST FOR THE BAHAMAS & TCI FOR 24 HOURS FROM 6PM, MONDAY, 10TH OCTOBER, 2016, ISSUED BY THE BAHAMAS DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY AT 2100 UTC.
BOATERS AND BEACHGOERS SHOULD EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION DUE TO ROUGH SURF AND THE HIGH RISK OF DANGEROUS RIP CURRENTS ALONG NORTH AND EAST COAST BEACHES…
GENERAL SITUATION: A COLD FRONT EXTENDING ACROSS THE SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS WILL FALL STATIONARY WITH FRESH TO STRONG WINDS BUILDING ACROSS THE ISLANDS IN WAKE OF THE FRONT…
NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL BAHAMAS
ADVISORY: A SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT…
WINDS: NORTH TO NORTHEAST AT 15 TO 25 KNOTS….
SEAS: 5 TO 8 FEET OVER THE OCEAN BUT UP TO 10 FEET IN NORTHEASTERLY SWELLS…
WEATHER: CHANCE OF A BRIEF PASSING SHOWER OR TWO…
SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS
ADVISORY: A SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT…
WINDS: NORTH TO NORTHEAST AT 15 KNOTS…
SEAS: 3 TO 5 FEET OVER THE OCEAN BUT UP TO 10 FEET IN NORTHERLY SWELLS…
WEATHER: CHANCE OF A BRIEF SHOWER OR TWO…
MOONSET: 2:19AM TUE LOW TIDE: 8:57PM LOW TIDE: 10:07AM TUE
MOONRISE: 3:40PM TUE HIGH TIDE: 3:57AM TUE HIGH TIDE: 4:24PM TUE
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK (HURRICANE SEASON):
Ford sales in China surged 24% in September
Sales of light vehicles in China by Ford and its joint venture partners rose 24% in September, driven by growing popularity of SUVs in the world's largest auto market.
Ford's operations in China are run through Changan Ford Automobile and Jiangling Motor. The automaker also imports a small number of vehicles from the U.S., most of which are Mustangs.
Changan Ford sales increased 24.5% in September to 84,335, up 24.5% from a year earlier. Jiangling sales rose 28% to 23,416.
"Ford has been building momentum, winning new customers with the most exciting lineup we have ever offered in China," said Peter Fleet, Ford Asia Pacific vice president of marketing, sales and service, in a statement.
Through the first nine months of 2016, Ford and its partners have sold 879,559 vehicles, up 11% from the year-earlier period.
Sales of the Lincoln luxury brand nearly tripled this year through September, to 20,996 from 7,219.
Source- Detroit Free Press
Canadian autoworkers reach tentative deal with Fiat Chrysler
Unifor reached a tentative agreement late Monday night with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles that includes a commitment to invest in the automaker's assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario, and provides its workers with their first raises in 10 years.
The deal was reached after several days of intense bargaining and, if ratified by workers, includes a $325-million investment in Brampton for a new paint shop and $6.4 million to upgrade the automaker's casting plant in Ebitocoke, Ontario, in Canadian dollars. It also includes $12,000 in bonuses and lump sum payments to workers over the life of the agreement before taxes.
Unifor also reached an agreement to save jobs of workers who will be laid off at the Ebitocoke plant. Those workers will be displaced because the plant makes parts for the Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart and both of those cars are being discontinued.
“That decision will lead, candidly, to the layoff of up to about 150, potentially 200 of our members,” Dias said. “So what we have found is a solution to make sure that our members will not be laid off and will have employment opportunities in the Brampton assembly plant.”
The contract represents the second win in two months for Unifor, which began negotiations this summer worried that three plants in Canada operated by the Detroit Three could close in the coming years. For FCA, the tentative deal averts a possible strike that would have shut down its Windsor Assembly Plant, where it builds the popular new Chrysler Pacifica minivan.
FCA, in a statement, confirmed that it reached an agreement with Unifor but declined to make any additional comment.
"We were really deeply concerned about the fact that the paint shop at Brampton … is over 30 years old," Unifor president Jerry Dias said at a news conference in Toronto. "Now, they are going to gut the existing paint shop and refurbish it."
Dias also said FCA would provide a new platform for the plant in Brampton if quality continues to improve but declined to clarify what that meant. FCA builds the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger at the plant on a platform that hasn't been overhauled in more than a decade.
The agreement will not be official until union members vote on the deal next week. After that, Unifor will turn its attention to Ford. The union has set a deadline of Oct. 31 to complete discussions with the Dearborn automaker.
Leaders of the Canadian union said negotiations with FCA went down to the wire and were completed only after overcoming a major hurdle. FCA, Dias said, was reluctant to provide the same level of wage increases that General Motors agreed to in a contract ratified last month by Unifor members, Dias said.
"This has been one very difficult set of negotiations," Dias said.
In the end, FCA agreed deal that provides the same wages and bonuses. That means FCA's 9,750 autoworkers in Canada will get a $6,000 signing bonus and $2,000 lump sum bonuses annually for the next three years in Canadian dollars. Workers also will get wage increases of 2% in the first and fourth years the contract.
The new contract also revises a 10-year progressive pay scale for newly hired workers who will now start at CA$20.92 per hour and will get a raise every year until they reach the top wage of CA$34.15 per hour.
Unifor, like the UAW in the U.S., historically strives to negotiate contracts with all three automakers that provide similar wages and benefits. The theory, called "pattern bargaining" is that the union wants the automakers to compete against each other based on design, quality, and engineering rather than based on labor rate advantages.
FCA objected to the GM pattern because its profits pale in comparison to General Motors and Ford and its profit margins are smaller.
"We reached the objective, which was a pattern," Dias said. "The difficulty was getting them to agree to the pattern."
Unifor began its contract talks with GM, FCA saying Canada's entire auto industry is at stake in this year's negotiations. Unifor is trying to secure investments at Canadian auto plants to prevent a further erosion of the automotive industry in Canada as plants have closed and the country has failed to attract new auto plants.
Dias got off to a strong start with GM when it won a CA$540 million investment commitment to upgrade the Oshawa plant and its St. Catharines, Ontario, plant.
Those upgrades will pave the way for GM to gain additional production volume for the Chevrolet Silverado at the Oshawa plant and build the Cadillac XTS as other cars and SUVs built at the plant are phased out. Most of the Silverado production will continue to come from GM's plant in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Now Dias is celebrating his second tentative agreement with an automaker in two months.
"It's my birthday today, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate my birthday than a $325-million investment for Brampton," Dias said.
Source-
Lincoln nearly triples China sales
Ford Motor Co.'s luxury Lincoln brand nearly tripled its China sales in the third quarter to 8,546 vehicles, the company said today.
In the first three quarters of the year, Lincoln sales in China surged 191 percent to about 21,000, Ford said. Ford also said it was on track to have 65 Lincoln stores by the end of this year and 80 by the end of 2017.
Ford said it hopes its China sales will be boosted by a new version of its flagship sedan, the Lincoln Continental, to go on sale at Chinese dealerships in the fourth quarter.
Even with the surging sales, Ford's Lincoln lagged Detroit rival General Motors and its luxury Cadillac brand, which got a much earlier start. In September in China, GM sold about 12,500 Cadillacs, up 63 percent.
In 2016 through September, GM has sold about 77,000 Cadillac vehicles in China, up 35 percent, more than three times Lincoln's sales.
GM's total deliveries in China rose 16 percent to 343,773 vehicles in September, led by strong sales at Cadillac, Buick and Baojun. Last month, Cadillac sales soared 63 percent from a year earlier to 12,539 vehicles on demand for the XT5 crossover and the ATS-L and XTS sedans.
For the year to date, GM said its sales in China have risen 9 percent to 2.7 million vehicles.
Source-AN
Facebook Launches Business Version
Social media giant Facebook has launched a separate version of its network platform aimed at businesses, called Workplace.
Facebook hopes the new product will replace businesses' previous internal communications tools, such as intranet and mailbox. It's competing with other workplace products or services including LinkedIn, Slack, HipChat, Microsoft's Yammer and Salesforce's Chatter.
Workplace, previously called Facebook at Work, has a similar look and feel to standard Facebook, including a news feed to read, group chats, and an instant messaging to stay in contact with co-workers. Users can add and share comments, photos and videos about their work and can engage in video calls with co-workers.
In a change from Facebook, Workplace's background is gray, not blue, and users can access it without a Facebook account.
The service is free for nonprofits and educational institutions, but costs businesses between $1-3 per month per connected employee, depending on the size of the business.
Organizations have used the service for the past 18 months on an invite-only basis. Facebook says 1,000 companies are already using the product, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, the nonprofit group Oxfam, and soup maker Campbell's.
Workplace is based on an internal service that Facebook's own employees have been using for years.The goal is similar to Facebook -- to connect as many people as possible -- but this time in the workplace."A connected workplace is a more productive workplace," explains the official Workplace page.
Facebook says the top five countries now using Workplace are India, Norway, the United States, Britain and France.
G7 Nations Agree on Cybersecurity Guidelines
Cyberattacks on financial institutions are growing more frequent, persistent and dangerous and could threaten the interconnected global financial system, according to the world’s largest industrial nations.
The Group of Seven governments published a common set of cybersecurity guidelines and principles Tuesday in an effort to reduce the threat. The G-7 nations are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
The guidelines urge governments, banks, regulators and others to use the outline to craft a strategy appropriate for each institution.
The strategy is to share and use best practices to assess and monitor cyberattacks and make plans to respond to intrusions and block the theft of money or information.
The guidelines call on G-7 members to share information and lessons learned so cyber defenses are dynamic and systems are continuously learning. The hope is that most attacks will be stopped, and intrusions will be cut short and systems returned to service promptly.
The document says trust and confidence in the financial sector improves when financial instructions and nations can have the ability to assist each other.
Cyber thieves have targeted large financial institutions around the world, including America's largest bank JPMorgan, as well as smaller players like Ecuador's Banco del Austro and Vietnam's Tien Phong Bank, both Reuters and The Wall Street Journal have reported. The U.S. Federal Reserve's internal security staff detected more than 50 cyber breaches between 2011 and 2015.
Source-VOA
Pokemon Go Might Lengthen Your Life
Forget fitness trackers and fitness apps.
Researchers say the augmented reality game Pokemon Go could have added 2.83 million years of life expectancy by simply getting people off the couch to hunt for virtual monsters.
The study was done by Microsoft Research and found that Pokemon Go players, on average, increased the number of steps they took by 26 percent, with the most sedentary benefiting the most. Looked at another way, that’s 194 more steps per day taken, or roughly 160 meters.
When totaled, researchers said cumulatively, the roughly 25 million Pokemon Go-playing Americans took 144 billion more steps or the equivalent of 143 round trips to the moon.
Activity increases were seen among genders, ages, weight and general levels of health.
The researchers say that since activity lowers mortality, all the extra activity from Pokemon Go could mean 2.83 million more years of life expectancy. Players who take 1,000 steps per day could lengthen their lives by 41.4 days.
The one downside of the study is that interest in the game appeared to have peaked in the summer. Less interest and colder weather could reduce the number of players sharply.
The study was posted in the Cornell University Library.
Source-VOA
DIGICEL LAUNCHES TEXT TO DONATE LINE TO SUPPORT RELIEF EFFORTS IN HAITI
In the wake of Hurricane Matthew that destroyed 90 percent of Southern Haiti on October 5th, Digicel launched a text line that will allow its customers to donate well-needed funds towards the humanitarian relief effort that is urgently needed in Haiti.
By texting the word ‘HELP’, Digicel customers across the Caribbean can help to make a huge difference to the people of Haiti. Digicel will donate all funds it receives to three Haitian charities – Haven, Paradis des Indiens and Prodev. In addition, there is no restriction on the number of texts a customer can send, so people are free to donate as much as they like.
Digicel Haiti Chairman, Maarten Boute, said; “This is truly a sad time for Haiti and its people and my condolences go to all the families who lost loved ones. We are reaching out to everyone that can help – no donation is too small. We remained strong after the earthquake in 2010 and will continue to show our strength through these trying times as well. I would like to thank everyone for keeping Haiti in their thoughts at this time.”
Launched in 2008, Haven has built or upgraded homes and shelters for close to 20,000 people and has touched the lives of over 200,000 Haitians. The Paradis des Indiens was founded in 1975 as a school in Abricots, Haiti but over the years, it has grown to become a pillar in the south west region through its network of 12 schools and diverse community building initiatives. PRODEV is a Haitian-led education-focused non-profit organisation which operates three schools and is assisting in the post hurricane relief. PRODEV’s mission is to develop, manage and support schools in an effort to building a stronger Haiti.
To donate, Digicel customers can text 5151 except in Barbados (5152), French West Indies (9995), Guyana (1218), Jamaica (444-2452) and Suriname (2727).
Samsung Ends Production of Problem-Plagued Galaxy Note 7
South Korean electronics giant Samsung says it will no longer manufacture its troubled Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after numerous reports around the globe of overheating.
The company announced Tuesday it was shutting down production for good in the interest of consumer safety.
Samsung announced earlier in the day that it was stopping all global sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7, and advised all customers to stop using the device immediately.
The South Korean conglomerate sustained a massive eight percent loss in its share price at the end of Tuesday's stock market trading session.
The Note 7 had barely been on the market for a month when Samsung announced a global recall of 2.5 million units due to faulty batteries in early September.
Samsung offered replacement units to all of its customers, before reports resurfaced of overheating with the new devices, raising fresh doubts about the firm's quality control abilities
A number of major cellphone companies, including U.S-based AT&T and German rival T-Mobile, unilaterally announced a halt to sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7 on Sunday.
The top-of-the-line Note 7 was crucial to Samsung's growth plans this year, with the company struggling to boost sales, squeezed by Apple in the high-end sector and Chinese rivals in the low-end.