NBA to play first game in Africa
Britain's Luol Deng will captain Team Africa against Team World in the NBA's first game in Africa.
The match will take place on 1 August at Ellis Park Arena in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers will captain Team World.
"I am truly honoured to be part of this historic event," said Miami Heat's Deng, 30, who was born in South Sudan and represented Team GB at London 2012.
Team Africa will include players from Africa and second generation African players, while Team World will be represented by players from the rest of the world.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said: "The NBA has worked hard to grow the game of basketball in Africa, and I am excited to take this next step of playing our first game on the continent."
The game will support Boys & Girls Clubs of South Africa, S.O.S Children's Villages South Africa and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
Source-BBC
178 Haitian migrants detained in Bahamas
The Bahamas says 178 Haitian migrants have been detained by local authorities over the last several days.
In a Sunday statement, Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell said the archipelago off Florida’s east coast has been “dealing with a deluge of illegal migrants who have breached our borders over the past week.”
The Royal Bahamas Defence Force late Wednesday intercepted an overloaded boat with 168 Haitian migrants seeking a better life. The group was made up of 131 adults and 37 children. Mitchell says authorities are “working to expedite their immediate return to Haiti.”
He says 10 other Haitian migrants were also detained in Inagua, the islands’ southernmost district.
The Bahamas has sought over the past year to reduce illegal migration by increasing maritime patrols and imposing new restrictions on work permits.
Source-AP
EU Must Help With Migrant Crisis says Italian PM
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Wednesday pressed the European Union to help shoulder the burden of curbing migrant trafficking in African countries, after more than 800 migrants drowned when a ship capsized Sunday in the Mediterranean Sea.
And, overnight, the U.N. Security Council urged a more muscular response to combat trafficking and encouraged more financial aid and assistance to Italy and other southern European countries on the crisis’ front lines.
Renzi, addressing Italian lawmakers in Rome on Wednesday, said the 28-member European Union must prioritize the migrant crisis if it “wants to be more than a simple assembly of countries that are members of an economic club,” the Associated Press reported.
While Italy has rescued 200,000 migrants since early 2014, its “noble generosity alone isn’t enough,” Renzi said. “We are asking Europe to be Europe, not just when it’s time to devise a budget.”
Measures could include setting up refugee camps in Africa, with U.N. support, and expanding sea patrols to deter “21st-century slave drivers” preying on migrants, Renzi suggested, according to the AP.
European leaders have scheduled an emergency summit Thursday in Brussels to discuss how to halt human trafficking and bolster rescue efforts. Thousands fleeing violence and poverty in northern Africa and the Middle East have risked perilous Mediterranean crossings for relative safety in Europe.
With Sunday’s capsizing alone, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees “now believes the number of fatalities to have been over 800, making this the deadliest incident in the Mediterranean we have ever recorded,” spokesman Arian Edwards said in Geneva.
Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti also said human traffickers must be targeted with military intervention.
The rights group Save the Children reported Wednesday that it has learned some 60 adolescents were on board the ship when it capsized off the Libyan coast. It warned that if current trends continue, some 2,500 migrant children could die in similar accidents on the Mediterranean this year.
A Save the Children It said four boys claiming to be younger than 18 survived Sunday’s accident, when the migrant ship’s captain mistakenly rammed his vessel into a merchant ship that was coming to its rescue.
Italian prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Catania said the Tunisian captain steered his overloaded boat into a Portuguese container ship just before it capsized off the coast of Libya on Sunday. Authorities say it is the Mediterranean's deadliest migrant disaster. There were only 28 survivors.
The prosecutors absolved the merchant ship of any responsibility for the tragedy.
Actor Ben Affleck: 'Embarrassed' by Slave-owning Ancestor
Actor Ben Affleck said Tuesday he regretted asking a PBS documentary show profiling his ancestors to exclude a relative who'd owned slaves, saying he was embarrassed by the revelation.
Affleck's ancestry was traced by Harvard scholar Henry Louis (Skip) Gates Jr. for an episode in the second season of "Finding Your Roots." In the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) series, well-known personalities can discover more about their family history.
"I didn't want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves. I was embarrassed. The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth," Affleck said in a statement on his Facebook page.
"I regret my initial thoughts that the issue of slavery not be included in the story," he added.
Representatives for PBS and Gates did not respond to requests for comment.
The issue came to light after anti-secrecy website Wikileaks released a searchable database of more than 30,000 documents that were stolen by hacker from Sony Corp's Sony Pictures Entertainment in a massive cyber attack last year.
Affleck said in his statement that Gates had final say in what was included in the episode, which aired last October. He said he had "lobbied" Gates on what elements of his family history to use in the show.
The Oscar-winning actor-director added that he assumed the show "will respect your willingness to participate and not look to include things you think would embarrass your family."
"While I don't like that the guy is an ancestor, I am happy that aspect of our country's history is being talked about," he said.
Source-VOA
CARICOM task force on climate change meets in St Lucia
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Task Force on Climate Change meets here on Tuesday ahead of the May 9 summit in Martinique to be attended by French President Francois Hollande.
The meeting here is being convened by the Belize based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and will be chaired by Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology Minister Dr James Fletcher.
A statement issued here said that the one-day meeting would focus on several areas including mitigation and adaptation, loss and damage, the CARICOM Preparations for Martinique Summit, the draft Martinique Declaration and the Road to COP 2015 in Paris.
The statement said that CARICOM is adopting a ‘strategic approach to prepare and present a coordinated position ahead of the twenty first Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP 21) scheduled to take place in Paris at the end of this year.
Source-CMC
Digicel WELCOMEs ANNOUNCEMENT BY ST. LUCIA NTRC OF PUBLIC CONSULtATION ON lime / flow MERGER
Digicel today confirmed its strong support for the announcement by the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of St. Lucia (‘St. Lucia NTRC’) of a public consultation process in relation to the merger between Cable and Wireless Communications (‘LIME’) and FLOW / Columbus Communications Inc. (‘FLOW’). The St. Lucia NTRC has invited members of the public / all interested parties to make submissions on the merger to the NTRC by Thursday 30th April 2015.
Digicel has previously publicly called upon the Regulatory Authorities in St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada to be mindful of the conditions imposed by the Regulatory Authorities in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago; particularly in relation to the divestiture of duplicate fibre and related infrastructure assets created by the merger of LIME and FLOW’s networks. In its decision published on 27th March, the Barbados Fair Trading Commission (‘the FTC’) confirmed the view that the merger would create ‘… anti-competitive effects … in the Fixed-voice (landline) telephony and Fixed Data (broadband internet)….’ markets. Accordingly, the FTC imposed 14 separate significant conditions on its merger approval compelling LIME to promptly divest of significant overlap fibre assets in Barbados to a third party or parties to be approved by the FTC. These compulsory divestments include fibre assets relating to 27,000+ homes passed by the Karib Cable network and an additional 28,000+ homes outside of the Karib Cable network; but within the combined LIME / FLOW networks. The FTC also made its approval conditional on other specific conditions, including guaranteed consumer choice on service contracts, provision of pole and duct access to third party providers and retail price tariffing in the product markets affected by the strongly anti-competitive effects of the merger.
Digicel has submitted to ECTEL and to the NTRC’s in the affected countries that the merger of LIME and FLOW is, at the very least, every bit as serious a challenge to competition in key telecoms markets in St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada as it is in Barbados and that the anti-competitive effects of the merger are perhaps even more obvious in the OECS. Accordingly, Digicel submits that these OECS regulatory authorities must also very seriously consider the remedies of overlap assets divestiture in the OECS in order to address these obvious anti-competitive effects of the merger.
Digicel Group CEO, Colm Delves, commented; “We very much welcome this intervention by the St. Lucia NTRC and its commitment to a rigorous regulatory examination of the proposed merger. This matter needs to be very carefully examined and monitored by the regulatory authorities in the OECS countries.”
TCI is the #1 travel destination
Island-hoppers take are turning their eyes on Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos is TripAdvisor's latest pick for the world's top island.
Providenciales climbed a rung from last year's No. 2 ranking among the travel review site's Travelers' Choice award winners to bump Ambergris Caye out of the top spot.
It was quite a tumble for the Belize island. Ambergris Caye held the top ranking on the TripAdvisor global islands list for two years in a row before dropping out of the top 10 completely this year.
Why the disappearance?
"It's hard to say, as winners change from year to year based on feedback from travelers," said TripAdvisor spokeswoman Julie Cassetina. "Similar to last year and 2013, winning islands were determined using an algorithm that looked at the quality and quantity of traveler reviews and opinions for hotels, attractions and restaurants on each island gathered during a 12-month period."
30 envy-inducing island photos
Only two more of 2014's top 10 islands appear on this year's global list. Ko Tao, Thailand, gained five spots this year, moving up from No. 10 last year, while Bora Bora dropped from No. 3 last year to rank ninth.
Here are the world's top 10 islands for 2015:
1. Providenciales, Turks and Caicos
2. Maui, Hawaii
3. Roatan, Honduras
4. Santorini, Greece
5. Ko Tao, Thailand
6. Madeira, Portugal
7. Bali, Indonesia
8. Mauritius, Africa
9. Bora Bora, French Polynesia
10. Fernando de Noronha, Brazil
In addition to the global list, TripAdvisor also ranks islands regionally. Here are the top 10 U.S. islands:
1. Maui, Hawaii
2. Island of Hawaii, Hawaii
3. Kauai, Hawaii
4. Key West, Florida
5. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
6. Marco Island, Florida
7. Key Largo, Florida
8. Chincoteague Island, Virginia
9. San Juan Island, Washington
10. Mackinac Island, Michigan
Source-CNN
BULLYING AT A PROVIDENCIALES PRIMARY SCHOOL
The Ministry and Department of Education, Youth, Sports and Library Services strongly condemns the behavior exhibited on the video currently being circulated via internet and other social media.
The video displays gross acts of bullying of one student against another male student. This behavior and the perpetrators will not be tolerated and the Department is conducting investigations into the matter at this present time. .
The Ministry and Department have taken action to remove the students involved in the act until further investigations are conducted.
The parents and other relevant authorities have also been contacted.
We are asking the public, that in the interest of the welfare and protection of the child who was bullied and parents, that we respect their rights and cease and desist from the circulation of this horrid video.
RTC News is tracking the story and will have more as this develops.
2nd Test: Windies lose openers in pre-lunch stumble
West Indies stumbled against England on the rain affected opening day of their second test match at the national stadium here on Tuesday.
The host was reeling on 36 for two at lunch after losing their openers cheaply in a morning session, shortened by heavy and light mid morning showers.
Devon Smith and Kraigg Brathwaite succumbed to England’s pacers in a competitive morning session under overcast conditions.
Brathwaite fell early in the third over for one, beaten by an in swinger from James Anderson which darted into his pad and deflected on to the leg stump.
Smith, who became the first Grenadian to play test cricket on home soil, batted cautiously at first but then ran into problems with Chris Jordan.
Smith hit two fours and got to 15 when he was dropped by Garry Balance down the leg side.
However four balls later his luck ran out as he followed a ball wide outside his off stump which seems to have gotten an edge to the wicketkeeper.
Smith stood his ground for a while but declined a review although replays suggested he had not hit the ball.
Darren Bravo is 19 not out while Marlon Samuels is yet to get of
Source-CMC
LIAT nears completion of fleet upgrade with arrival of 9th ATR
The Caribbean Airline has added another new ATR aircraft to its fleet as the company nears completion of its fleet upgrade which commenced in 2013.
LIAT pilots today delivered the latest ATR-42 aircraft at V.C. Bird International Airport (VCBIA) in Antigua following a flight across the Atlantic which commenced Wednesday April 15 from Toulouse, France.
LIAT’s Chief Executive Officer David Evans was joined by LIAT’s Antigua and Barbuda Board Member, Minister Robin Yearwood in welcoming the new aircraft to VCBIA.
The plane was piloted from Europe to the Caribbean by LIAT’s Chief Pilot Captain Arthur Senhouse and First Officer Denrolin Crooke. Also on board was LIAT flight engineer Mr. Robert Collins.
Mr. Evans said: “The arrival of this ATR-42 into the fleet will allow us to add additional capacity to Antigua and the rest of the network with new services added to the upcoming Summer schedule, which will be launched shortly.”
LIAT now has a fleet of nine ATR aircraft – five ATR-42s with 48 seats; and four ATR 72s, each with 68 seats.
The company expects to take delivery of another aircraft in 2016.