TURKS AND CAICOS POST CABINET MEETING STATEMENT FOR JAN 21st,2015
His Excellency the Governor, Peter Beckingham, chaired the meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday 21 January 2015 at the NJS Francis Building on Grand Turk.
All Ministers were present except; Hon. Minister of Tourism, Culture and Heritage.
At this meeting Cabinet:
· Noted the death of the former speaker of the House of Assembly Dr. Rosita B. Butterfield, MBE and confirmed that Dr. Butterfield will be honored by a state funeral on 5th February 2015 in recognition of her service to the Turks and Caicos Islands. In addition Cabinet confirmed that Thursday 5th February 2015 will be a holiday in the TCI Public Service. Further details of the state funeral arrangements will be published shortly;
· Received a report from Rodney Adams, Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police setting out the latest crime statistics and the actions being taken by the RTCIPF to counter crime and their plans to strengthen community policing. The RTCIPF will communicate these matters to the public in a news conference in due course;
· Advised HE. the Governor to approve the appointment of Sanfra Foster, Country and Branch Manager (TCI) RBC Royal Bank and Patricia Adams, Senior Manager Business Support Scotiabank (TCI) as members of the TCIG Audit Committee;
· Approved the budget structure for the management and operation of District Commissioners Offices in line with the Governments long-term vision to strengthen the role of District Commissioners and to establish effective local Government across the islands;
· Noted waivers of the Public Procurement procedures granted by the Director of Contracts and the Permanent Secretary Finance. Waivers are granted in accordance with section 21 (12) of the Public Procurement Ordinance which makes provision for a waiver in exceptional circumstances;
· Approved arrangements for the establishment of the Turks and Caicos Islands London Office in the UK. The role of the TCI London Office is to establish and strengthen relations between TCIG and the UK Government, the EU and other Government and Non- Government Organisations. To serve as media spokesperson for TCIG in the UK and to actively market and promote tourism, investment and financial services throughout the UK and Europe in partnership with the TCI Tourist Board;
· Advised HE. the Governor to approve revisions to the TCIG Travel Policy. The revisions make provision for a Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) for local travel;
· Noted the National Insurance Board (NIB) Audited Financial Statements 2013/14 and the 7th Actuarial Valuation Report as of 31st March 2013 in preparation for submission to the House of Assembly;
· Considered a report from the recent public consultation on Company Beneficial Ownership and maintenance of a publicly accessible central beneficial ownership registry. A full statement setting out Cabinets position on the matter will be made in due course;
· Received a report from the Minister of Home Affairs and agreed in principle proposals to make Front Street, Grand Turk a one way street. The matter will be the subject of further consultation with the Police and Road Safety officials and businesses and residents in the area;
· Advised HE. the Governor to approve the reappointment of Permanent Secretaries Susan Malcolm and Wesley Clerveaux to the Executive Council of the Turks and Caicos Islands National Trust. The appointments are made in accordance with Section 6 of the Turks and Caicos Islands National Trust Ordinance.
THIS IS THE FORECAST FOR THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT THURSDAY 22ND JANUARY 2015
GENERAL SITUATION: A WEAK HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE WILL PROVIDE PLEASANT CONDITIONS ACROSS THE BAHAMAS & TURKS & CAICOS AS IT CONTINUES TO BUILD OVER THE AREA
FOR ALL AREAS
WEATHER: MOSTLY SUNNY AND WARM WITH THE SLIGHT CHANCE OF A PASSING AFTERNOON SHOWER…FAIR TONIGHT
WINDS: NORTHEAST TO EAST AT 10-15 KNOTS IN THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS AND NORTHEAST TO EAST AT 15 KNOTS IN THE TCI AND SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS
SEAS RUNNING: 2-4 FEET OVER THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS AND 3-5 FEET IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS
DAYTIME HIGH TEMPERATURE IN NASSAU 82F 28C
OVERNITE LOW TEMPERATURE IN NASSAU 64F 18C
SUNSET AT 5.47 PM AND SUNRISE AT 6.56 AM FRIDAY
MOONSET AT 8.23 PM AND MOONRISE AT 9.11 AM FRIDAY
LOW TIDE AT 3.19 PM AND HIGH TIDE AT 9.20 PM AND LOW AGAIN AT 3.31 AM FRIDAY AND HIGH AGAIN AT 9.44 AM FRIDAY
EXTENDED FORECAST FOR THE NEXT THREE DAYS: A DEEPENING LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IN THE GULF OF MEXICO WILL MOVE ACROSS FLORIDA AND INTO THE WESTERN ATLANTIC WHILE DRAGGING A COLD FRONT ACROSS THE EXTREME NORTHWEST BAHAMAS ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON
DIGICEL GROUP ANNOUNCES UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP WITH RDIO TO OFFER WORLD CLASS MUSIC STREAMING SERVICE
Digicel Group today announced a ground breaking service with leading global music streaming provider, Rdio, to offer Digicel customers across the globe access to over 35 million international titles – as well as the very best local and regional music – all on their own smartphones.
To mark the launch of the service, Digicel is giving all customers who purchase a prepaid data plan, 30 minutes of free music per day, up to a maximum of 30 days. This offer will be rolled out across all markets in the coming weeks. In addition, the Rdio app is being tailored for Digicel customers to include customised playlists with the very best of local, regional and international music.
The free app is available to download from the Google Play store, the Apple App Store, Windows Phone Store and online at www.rdio.com. Customers simply sign up for the Rdio Free service in the app using their email address and a password of their choice. From there, they can immediately begin to create personalised stations based on their favourite artists and music genres. The Rdio Free service will then suggest new music based on those choices and allow customers to share their stations on social media.
Another unique feature of the Digicel/Rdio partnership is the special access to Digicel’s musical Brand Ambassadors whose music selections are sure to attract many fans.
One of these Ambassadors is Jamaican native, Tessanne Chin. Winner of Season 5 of The Voice (as part of Adam Levine's team), ‘the song bird’ is very excited to be connecting to her Digicel fans through Rdio.
“Making music and keeping my fans happy is at the heart of everything I do. That’s why this partnership between Digicel and Rdio is so important because it means that for the first time ever, fans in the Caribbean, Central America and Asia Pacific can follow me, check out what I’m listening to, hear my new music first and equally, I can get feedback from them, know what they like and what they want more of – all through the app,” she said.
Digicel Group CEO, Colm Delves, said; “We are delighted to be bringing the gift of music to our 14 million customers across the globe. This is a unique partnership which delivers the widest range of music – from local artists to international superstars – all through the app on their own smartphone. And, to mark the launch, we are offering all customers who purchase a data plan, 30 minutes of music per day for up to 30 days, absolutely free.”
Customers can upgrade from Rdio Free to the premium, ad-free Rdio Unlimited service using their credit card. Priced between US$6 and US$7 per month, the Rdio Unlimited service offers customer additional benefits such as the ability to download music for offline listening and listen to any track on-demand. However, in the coming weeks, Digicel customers will be able to pay for Rdio Unlimited using their phone credit or monthly postpaid bill.
Commenting on the partnership, Rdio CEO, Anthony Bay, said; “Launching Rdio in each of these markets is a huge milestone for the company. We are excited to bring the vibrant music of these regions onto Rdio for the world to hear while also providing users in each new market access to international artists. Digicel will be instrumental in shaping the streaming experience locally and we look forward to a continued fruitful partnership with them.”
TCIG Thanks Various Sponsors for Holiday Season Assistance
The Department of Social Development and Gender Affairs sends a special thanks to all who have helped, along with persons in the various communities during this Christmas Season.
Tiffany Thomas-Browne, Deputy Director of Social Development and Gender Affairs stated, “One of the real joys of the Holiday Season is the opportunity to say thank you and to wish our many partners the very best in the New Year.
“From the bottom of our heart, we are grateful for these people, who continue to be selfless and thoughtful. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It is very much appreciated. We welcome additional partners throughout 2015.”
Below is a schedule of Christmas gifts presented during December.
11th December 2014 - Scotia Bank TCI Ltd – Providenciales Branch (Presented food gift baskets to the elderly of the Department and other needy persons in the community)
17th December 2014 - Beaches TCI Resort and Spa – Providenciales (Christmas Treats for Foster Care and S.E.A. Children’s Party held at the Key West Resort)
19th December 2014 - Beaches TCI Resort and Spa (Hosted a Christmas party for the elderly in Middle Caicos at the Conch Bar Community Center)
22nd December 2014 - Beaches TCI Resort and Spa (Christmas Treats for Foster Care and S.E.A children’s party in North Caicos at the Pelican Beach Hotel)
23rd December 2014 - Beaches TCI Resort and Spa – Environment, Health and Safety Department held a “Share Your Christmas” Drive - Providenciales (Tin food donations for the needy in the community of Providenciales were shared with Social Development and Gender Affairs and HIV/ AIDS Prevention)
24th December 2014 - Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Association (CAPAA) (Gift bags to the children of Social Development and Gender Affairs including: Toothpaste, washrags, soap, mouthwash, lotion, deodorant, toys for children on South Caicos)
24th December 2014 - Sisters of the Household of Ruth and the Odd Fellas Lodge - Grand Turk (Toiletries gift bags i.e. toothpaste, deodorant, powder, lotion along with Food gift baskets will be distributed to the Elderly clients and elderly in the community)
Other agencies on Providenciales reached out to our clients and distributed food items and Christmas meals to persons at their homes including:
CBMS Ltd, Cindy Jarrett of New Birth Agape Fellowship, St. Monica’s Anglican Church & Scotia Bank.
GOVERNOR PRAISES LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS
Speaking at the annual service to mark the work of law enforcement officers on Sunday 18 January at the Church of God of Prophecy in Providenciales, His Excellency the Governor praised all the officials for their work.
“Too often the work of key staff in the public sector is under-rated and under-valued, “ the Governor said. “I am delighted that the churches of Turks and Caicos take it in turn to celebrate the contribution of officers ranging from the police and fire forces to customs and border control. A clear mark of the value of that work was the award of an Honour to the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Border Control and Labour in the Queen’s Honours. That award should be seen as a recognition of the work of everyone in her Department.”
The Governor also highlighted the focus on the police forces of the world, of which the TCI was a part. While he hoped that Turks and Caicos would never see the dreadful terrorism acts in Paris earlier this month, every member of the Royal Turks and Islands Police Force needed to ask themselves whether they could match the fitness, marksmanship and efficiency of the French police, who had saved their country from a far worse outcome.
“Although the events of Paris may seem light years away from us, we all need to recognise how dependent we are similarly on the bravery of our Police Force, who are part of the international community of police dedicated to preserving and protecting peace in our community” the Governor concluded.
New Permanent Secretary and Deputy Secretary Appointed
TCIG completed interviews held during the month of December for Permanent Secretaries, the Turks and Caicos Islands Government (TCIG) announced to RTC News the formal appointment of Ian Astwood as Permanent Secretary and Desmond Lightbourne as Deputy Secretary.
Deputy Governor, Anya Williams stated "Mr. Astwood having previously served as Deputy Secretary and later Acting Permanent Secretary, Government Support Services has been formally appointed to the post of Permanent Secretary from a pool of four applicants for that post and Mr. Wilson who was formally appointed as Deputy Secretary from a pool of 16 applicants for the post of Deputy Secretary, Border Control.
"I would like to congratulate them both, and reiterate how important it is for TCIG to continue to recruit the best and most talented to civil service."
These persons as a result of the new restructuring exercise announced by the Premier last week will now transition into the new Ministry of Home Affairs, Transportation and Communication and the Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing and Planning respectively.
John Kerry hails coalition effort in Islamic State
Coalition air strikes in Syria and Iraq have halted or reversed the momentum of jihadist group Islamic State, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said.
Speaking after talks in London between 21 coalition states, Mr Kerry said about half the group's leaders had been killed since strikes began in August.
The UK foreign secretary said the coalition was determined to defeat IS.
But Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi warned falling oil prices could hurt Iraq's fighting capacity.
Mr Abadi thanked the coalition for providing training to his forces but said it needed more help with the supply of weapons.
BBC diplomatic correspondent James Robbins says the recent attacks by Islamist militants in France have put even greater political pressure on governments to show decisive results.
As well as the US, UK and Iraq, the talks included Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.
Gulf coalition partners Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE also took part.
Speaking after the talks, Mr Kerry said: "In recent months we have seen definitively... momentum halted in Iraq and in some cases reversed."
After nearly 2,000 air strikes, ground forces had reclaimed some 700 sq km (270 sq m) of territory, he told the news conference.
At the start of the coalition air strikes, the group was thought to control nearly 91,000 sq km of territory across Syria and Iraq.
Source-BBC
'Islamist cyber attacks' hit France
Numerous French media websites have gone down a day after warnings of a wave of Islamist cyber attacks.
The sites of Le Parisien, Marianne and 20 Minutes were among those affected, although most were soon restored.
The French government said some 20,000 sites had been targeted after terror attacks in Paris left 17 dead.
The media sites' web host said that it was investigating whether it was one of them but it has ruled out an external distributed denial of service attack.
On Thursday, the head of cyber security for the French military, Vice Admiral Arnaud Coustilliere, said that "structured" groups and "well known Islamist hackers" were behind the attacks against the 20,000 sites, but did not elaborate.
The outage among the media websites began the following day. It is not yet known if the two are linked.
The web host Oxalide told the BBC that no line of enquiry was being dismissed, but that its initial investigations had ruled out the possibility of an external distributed denial of service attack.
Such an attack involves flooding servers with requests to render the target site, thereby causing it to fail to load.
The company told the BBC it was still in the process of determining who was behind the attack.
It said it would release a report in the early afternoon on Friday. None was forthcoming at the time of publication.
That came after the vice admiral said he believed the first wave of attacks was a retaliation against Sunday's solidarity march in Paris, itself held in response to the Paris terror attacks.
According to to Agence France-Presse (AFP), he said "people who do not adhere to a certain number of values" expressed on that march were to blame.
Vice admiral Coustilliere added that some of the first wave of cyber attacks involved French army regiments and that the defence ministry "has decided to boost its security vigilance".
Besides the three named above, AFP reported that Friday's outage affected the websites of L'Express, Mediapart and France Info.
Those for France Inter, Slate and ZDNet were also among those affected from around 8am GMT on Friday.
Source-BBC
Oscars head Isaacs calls for more diversity after row
The president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts says she would like to see more diversity in Oscar nominations, after a row about this year's nominees.
All 20 contenders in the main acting categories are white and there are no female nominees in the directing or writing categories.
The Academy, which picks the contenders, has faced strong criticism.
But Cheryl Boone Isaacs said she was proud of the nominees and that the body was "making strides" towards diversity.
Ms Boone Isaacs, who is the first African-American president of the Academy, told AP the organisation is "committed to seeking out diversity of voice and opinion''.
In the last two years, we've made greater strides than we ever have in the past toward becoming a more diverse and inclusive organisation through admitting new members and more inclusive classes of members,'' she said.
She added she would "love to see" greater diversity among the nominees.
After the nominees were announced, people mocked the make-up of the awards using the "OscarsSoWhite" hashtag.
There has been much focus on Martin Luther King biopic Selma, with director Ava DuVernay and star David Oyelowo both missing out.
At the Critics' Choice award, another Selma actor, Wendell Pierce, said there would be "amazement" Oyelowo was not nominated once people saw the film.
But Ms Boone Isaacs said acclaim for Selma was reflected in its Best Picture nomination, which is chosen by all the academy members.
She said that while the Academy continued to make efforts to become more diverse, the wider industry needed to do the same.
"We hope the film industry will also make strides toward becoming more diverse and inclusive.''
Individual branches of the Academy choose the nominees, with actors choosing the acting categories, for example.
The more than 7,000 members then vote for a winner.
Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel lead the race for this year's Oscars with nine nominations each.
Source-BBC
Obama to seek tax raises on wealthy in State of the Union
President Obama is to use Tuesday's State of the Union speech to call for tax increases on the wealthy to help the middle class, officials say.
The proposals would raise $320 billion (£211 billion) over a decade, to fund benefits such as tax credits.
The speech is the centrepiece of the US political diary and may shape both Mr Obama's legacy and the 2016 election.
But the president faces resistance to his proposals, with Republicans controlling both Houses of Congress.
With the US economy growing, President Obama will stress that it is time for ordinary US families to feel the benefits.
According to US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the plans include:
Closing a loophole allowing the wealthiest Americans to pass on certain assets tax free
Raising capital gains tax on the richest earners from 23.8% to 28%
New fees on US financial firms with more than $50 billion (£33 billion) in assets
The revenues would raise more than enough to fund the proposed benefits for the middle class, according to the officials.
These include tripling child tax credits, help for families with two working spouses and extra incentives to save for retirement.
There's growing confidence in the White House about the strength of America's economic recovery - as President Obama told the UK Prime Minister David Cameron last week, "we must be doing something right".
But there's also an awareness that for many middle class Americans wages still feel stagnant.
A growing theme in US politics is the need to make sure the economic recovery extends to all and that there's social mobility for those with aspirations.
Of course, as well as the freedom afforded him by the improving economic picture, there's also the fact that the president isn't seeking re-election himself.
It means Mr Obama can help set the political weather for the 2016 election, even though he knows these new tax rises will provoke opposition in the new Republican Congress.
Still, there's a desire not to frighten the horses too much. The White House is stressing 99% of these increases will fall on the richest 1%.
The speech is also set to include a plan to expanding free community college education and proposals on cyber-security.
The State of the Union speech will be President Obama's first since the Republicans seized control of the two Houses of Congress at elections last November.
Source-BBC