Premier wraps up Townhall meeting in Grand Turk
Premier the Hon Dr. Rufus Ewing and his ministerial colleagues held the second public town hall-style meeting at the HJ Robinson High School’s auditorium Wednesday evening to get insight into community members’ thinking on the constitution and matters surrounding SIPT.
Premier Ewing said he and his colleagues came to power with a mandate to ensure some constitutional amendments must be made and so begun the process of engaging the community, then generated a report.
While they knew HMG might have not been receptive to some of the recommendations, which he said were only cosmetic, they were not prepared for the outright rejection of the constitutional recommendations.
After taking the audience through some of the challenges they have been faced with, he laid on the line his government’s position.
Local entrepreneur Carlis Williams questioned what if the scales continue to tip in HMG’s favor.
The Premier explained that there is nothing that allows for a referendum on anything and explained the processes.
On the matter of independence, there still seem to be some trepidation.
Mrs. Rosabell Adams, one of the attendees at last evening’s meeting, expressed sentiments that for her, it’s a scary situation.
The cabinet members will continue other dialogue following the recommendations of the public.
TCIG EXPRESSES CONDOLENSES AT THE DEATH OF NATIONAL ICON THE LATE REV. DR. CONRAD HOWELL
The Turks and Caicos Islands are mourning the death of the author of the territory’s National Song “This Land of Ours”.
Reverend Conrad Howell was found dead over the weekend after his family reported him missing on Thursday.
Premier Dr. Rufus Ewing, in a Statement, described Pastor Howell’s death as a tremendous loss to the nation.
"The Turks and Caicos Islands Government offers sincere condolences to the family and friends on the death of the late Rev. Dr. Conrad Howell.
The Premier, Dr. The Hon. Rufus W. Ewing, in deep reflection commented, "Our nation has suffered a tremendous loss today. Rev. Howell, as he was known to many, was a true patriot to our country and a soldier for our people. During his lifetime, he has made an invaluable contribution to the development of our society we are truly blessed to have known the late Rev. Dr. Conrad Howell and he will be greatly missed."
As the host of the popular Radio Talk Show, Expressions, Rev. Howell also stirred dialogue and national debate on some of the most controversial topics of our time but one of Rev. Howell's most notable national accomplishments is the penning of the National Song This Land Of Ours.
Our prayers are with the family and friends of Rev. Dr. Conrad Howell. May God be your source of comfort during this difficult time. May He strengthen you and keep you and may He bless these Turks and Caicos Islands."
RTC News will have more as this story develops.
Mini, Subaru, Scion improve the most in J.D. Power
Mini, Subaru and Scion had the biggest improvements in J.D. Power’s latest study of new-vehicle appeal, while Porsche finished first overall for the 11th consecutive year.
The upper echelon of the J.D. Power’s 2015 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study was dominated by luxury brands. Porsche was followed by Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.
Mini, the top-scoring non-premium brand, was led by a strong launch of the Cooper. Mini, which had two segment wins with the Cooper and Countryman, rose five spots in the rankings to 11th place with a score of 825 on a 1,000 point scale -- an industry-leading 30-point gain from 2014.
While sometimes troublesome technologies such as voice recognition can annoy consumers, J.D. Power found that safety systems such as blind-spot monitoring are having the opposite effect by making vehicles more appealing.
Models with blind-spot monitoring and warning systems scored 38 points higher than vehicles without them.
“The safety features and the weight they had on the overall index was a surprise … For me, that was very telling,” said Renee Stephens, vice president of U.S. automotive quality at J.D. Power.
Subaru, which had a runner-up finish in the compact car segment with the WRX, scored 788, a 22-point leap from 2014; it rose from second-to-last in 2014 to tie for 25th with Chrysler. Scion, 796, had the third-largest improvement after its score rose 17 points; it climbed from 28th place in 2014 to tie for 22nd, with Mazda.
Hyundai, last year’s leading non-premium brand, followed Mini as the second-ranked non-premium after improving five points to 809. Volkswagen, 806, was next with a 10-point gain.
GMC, 804, and Ram, 803, rounded out the top five non-premium brands.
Only two non-premium brands, Fiat and Toyota, had their scores drop this year. Fiat fell 19 points to 749, while Toyota, 781, was down two points.
J.D. Power says strong showings in the APEAL Study correlate with the building of brand loyalty that leads to repeat buys. Owners of models with higher APEAL scores also are more likely to recommend their vehicles to others.
“Word of mouth is still extremely important,” Stephens said.
Lexus, 831, had the steepest decline of any luxury brand after its score slipped by 13 points. Lexus fell from sixth to 10th place.The premium brand average was 841, one point better than 2014. The non-premium average jumped five points to 790.
Stephens said the 51-point gap between the two categories was the smallest since 2006. The tighter scores are attributed to non-premium brands increasingly offering in-vehicle technologies that were once only available to premium buyers.
The APEAL Study, now in its 20th year, measures how gratifying a new vehicle is to own and drive.
After the first 90 days of ownership, more than 84,000 purchasers and lessees judged their new 2015 model year vehicles across 77 attributes, which are combined into an overall APEAL score on a 1,000-point scale. The higher the score, the better.
Source-AutoNews
Apple watch texting!
The buzz surrounding the Apple Watch began long before many had even seen the product.
And Tuesday brings the first results for Apple since the release of its first generation wearable tech device.
But do not expect actual sales numbers. Instead we will only get hints from executives on how the watch is performing.
Sales of the iPhone are still likely to dominate Apple's results, as Samira Hussain reports from New York.
Several car infotainment systems are vulnerable to a hack attack
Several car infotainment systems are vulnerable to a hack attack that could potentially put lives at risk, a leading security company has said.
NCC Group said the exploit could be used to seize control of a vehicle's brakes and other critical systems.
The Manchester-based company told the BBC it had found a way to carry out the attacks by sending data via digital audio broadcasting (DAB) radio signals.
It coincides with news of a similar flaw discovered by two US researchers.
Chris Valasek and Charlie Miller showed Wired magazine that they could take control of a Jeep Cherokee car by sending data to its internet-connected entertainment and navigation system via a mobile-phone network.
Chrysler has released a patch to address the problem.
However, NCC's work - which has been restricted to its labs - points to a wider problem.
The UK's Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has responded by saying that car companies "invest billions of pounds to keep vehicles secure as possible".
By using relatively cheap off-the-shelf components connected to a laptop, the company's research director, Andy Davis, created a DAB station.
Because infotainment systems processed DAB data to display text and pictures on car dashboard screens, he said, an attacker could send code that would let them take over the system.
Once an infotainment system had been compromised, he said, an attacker could use it as a way to control more critical systems, including steering and braking.
Depending on the power of the transmitter, he said, a DAB broadcast could allow attackers to affect many cars at once.
"As this is a broadcast medium, if you had a vulnerability within a certain infotainment system in a certain manufacturer's vehicle, by sending one stream of data, you could attack many cars simultaneously," he said.
"[An attacker] would probably choose a common radio station to broadcast over the top of to make sure they reached the maximum number of target vehicles."
Mr Davis declined to publicly identify which specific infotainment systems he had hacked, at this point.
In many ways, modern cars are computer networks on wheels.
Such technology allows the latest cars to carry out automatic manoeuvres. For example, a driver can make their vehicle parallel park at the touch of a button.
Mr Davis said he had simulated his DAB-based attack only on equipment in his company's buildings because it would be illegal and unsafe to do so in the outside world.
But he added that he had previously compromised a real vehicle's automatic-braking system - designed to prevent it crashing into the car in front - by modifying an infotainment system, and he believed this could be replicated via a DAB broadcast.
"If someone were able to compromise the infotainment system, because of the architecture of its vehicle network, they would in some cases be able to disable the automatic braking functionality," he said.
On Tuesday, Wired magazine reported that two US security researchers had managed to remotely take control of a Jeep Cherokee's air-conditioning system, radio and windshield wipers while its journalist was driving the vehicle.
Source-BBC Radio 4
MARINE FORECAST FOR MONDAY 20TH JULY 2015
THIS IS THE MARINE FORECAST FOR THE BAHAMAS FOR 24 HOURS FROM 12 PM EST MONDAY 20TH JULY 2015 ISSUED AT NASSAU METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE AT 1530 UTC
GENERAL SITUATION: AN ATLANTIC RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE WILL CONTINUE ACROSS THE BAHAMAS MAINATAINING MOSTLY STABLE AND HOT WEATHER AROUND THE ISLANDS TODAY
FOR ALL AREAS
ADVISORY: GUSTY WINDS AND HIGHER SEAS CAN BE EXPECTED IN SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS
WINDS: SOUTHEAST TO SOUTH AT 10-15 KNOTS IN THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS AND EAST TO SOUTHEAST AT 10-15 KNOTS IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS
SEAS RUNNING: 2-4 FEET OVER THE OCEAN
WEATHER CHANCE OF ISOLATED SHOWERS OR THUNDERSTORMS
SUNSET AT 8.01 PM AND SUNRISE AT 6.32 AM TUESDAY
MOONSET AT 10.58 PM AND MOONRISE AT 11.18 AM TUESDAY
LOW TIDE AT 4.37 PM AND HIGH TIDE AT 11.45 PM AND LOW AGAIN AT 6.09 AM TUESDAY AND HIGH AGAIN AT 12.15 PM TUESDAY
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK: THE TROPICS REMAIN QUIET AND TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 5 DAYS
WEATHER FOR MONDAY 20TH JULY 2015
THIS IS THE FORECAST FOR THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT MONDAY 20TH JULY 2015
GENERAL SITUATION: AN ATLANTIC RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE WILL CONTINUE ACROSS THE BAHAMAS MAINATAINING MOSTLY STABLE AND HOT WEATHER AROUND THE ISLANDS TODAY
FOR ALL AREAS
WEATHER: PARTLY SUNNY, HOT AND HAZY TODAY WITH THE CHANCE OF ISOLATED SHOWERS OR THUNDERSTORMS MAINLY OVER OPEN WATERS TODAY…FAIR AND WARM TONIGHT
ADVISORY: GUSTY WINDS AND HIGHER SEAS CAN BE EXPECTED IN SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS
WINDS: SOUTHEAST TO SOUTH AT 10-15 KNOTS IN THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS AND EAST TO SOUTHEAST AT 10-15 KNOTS IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS
SEAS RUNNING: 2-4 FEET OVER THE OCEAN
DAYTIME HIGH TEMPERATURE IN NASSAU 91F 33C
OVERNITE LOW TEMPERATURE IN NASSAU 78F 26C
SUNSET AT 8.01 PM AND SUNRISE AT 6.32 AM TUESDAY
MOONSET AT 10.58 PM AND MOONRISE AT 11.18 AM TUESDAY
LOW TIDE AT 4.37 PM AND HIGH TIDE AT 11.45 PM AND LOW AGAIN AT 6.09 AM TUESDAY AND HIGH AGAIN AT 12.15 PM TUESDAY
WEATHER OUTLOOK: NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES EXPECTED AS HIGH PRESSURE CONTINUES TO DOMINATE THE WEATHER ACROSS THE ISLANDS
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK: THE TROPICS REMAIN QUIET AND TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 5 DAYS
U.S & Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations through an Embassy
One bitter holdover of the Cold War slipped into the history books at 12:01 a.m. Monday, when the United States and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations. For the first time since severing ties in 1961, they reopened embassies in each other's capitals.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla was to travel to the Cuban Embassy in Washington to raise his country's flag, an event that Cuban government officials said would be broadcast live on the island's state-run TV.
A Cuban delegation of diplomats, artists and veterans of the revolution were to commemorate the breakthrough with about 500 guests and more than likely down a few celebratory mojitos and shots of Havana Club rum.
U.S. diplomats in Havana have readied everything from new business cards to the embassy sign. But the festivities and flag-raising will have to wait for Secretary of State John Kerry's visit -- the highest-level trip by a U.S. official to Cuba since the 1959 revolution -- for the embassy reopening ceremony in August.
Source-CNN
Mitsubishi apologizes to WWII Japanese prisoners of war
As Japan prepares to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, one of its largest corporations has given a long-awaited apology for wartime atrocities.
At a ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday, a representative for Mitsubishi Materials Corporation apologized for using captured American soldiers as slave laborers.
Mitsubishi Materials is the first private corporation to express such remorse, although the Japanese government has made repeated apologies.
The solemn act of contrition comes far too late for most victims. Mitsubishi says it was only able to locate two living survivors. But former prisoner of war James Murphy warmly accepted the apology, which comes just weeks before the August 15th anniversary of Japan's 1945 surrender.
Murphy, a 94-year-old American, was in his early 20s when he became a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II. He said he was "elated" by the apology, which he had waited to hear in the seven decades since he was freed.
Murphy says he survived horrific conditions as a forced laborer for Mitsubishi Materials' predecessor Mitsubishi Mining Co., which supplied materials used to manufacture, among other things, Mitsubishi's feared Zero fighter aircraft used by the Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945.
Mitsubishi has admitted to holding nearly 900 American prisoners-of-war when allied forces liberated its labor camps in 1945 during the final days of the war.
Source-CNN
Deadly blast hits Suruc activists in Turkey
An explosion has killed at least 27 people and wounded many more in the Turkish town of Suruc near the Syrian border, the interior ministry says.
The blast occurred in the garden of a cultural centre. Hundreds of youth workers were reportedly staying there.
There is no official word on the cause of the explosion. Reports say it could have been a suicide attack.
Suruc, located near the Syrian town of Kobane, houses many refugees who fled fighting there in recent months.
Kobane has been a battleground between militants from the Islamic State (IS) group and Kurdish fighters since September last year, when IS overran the town, forcing most of its residents to flee into Turkey.
The Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF) is reported to have had at least 300 members staying at the Amara Culture Centre to take part in rebuilding work in Kobane.
The federation tweeted photographs showing the group in the garden before the blast and the scene afterwards.
Source-BBC