PREMIER EWING ATTENDS THE JOINT MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE IN LONDON
Premier and Minister of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, Dr. the Hon. Rufus W. Ewing, this week represented the Turks and Caicos Islands at the Annual Joint Ministerial Conference (JMC) in London United Kingdom.
The four day series of meetings, held from December 1-4, at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was attended by the Leaders of the thirteen UK Overseas Territories and spanned a range of pertinent issues facing the Territories, including Border Control & Security, Repatriation of Passports, migration and deportation and Environmental Protection and Public Private Partnerships (PPP) for Green Initiatives.
Premier Ewing, who was also joined by the Governor H. E. Peter Beckingham at this year's JMC, co-presented on Wednesday evening's session on Health, highlighting the need for the UK Government's support in collaborating the procurement of medical supplies and their need to assist the Overseas Territories in the preparation efforts to protect their citizens from major health treats and pandemic outbreaks like the Ebola Virus. Premier Ewing in highlighting the challenges that Overseas Territories face with Health, noted that the recent threat of the Ebola Virus and the necessary preparation and execution of protection measures costed the Turks and Caicos Islands some one million dollars in un-budgeted funds. The Premier further noted that particularly in the Turks and Caicos Islands and other multi-island countries, the issue of multiple ports and limited resources also presents Governments with challenges in border detection of illnesses.
On the matter of the Environment, the Premier, noting that the environment, in particular the pristine beaches, is the major attraction for the many visitors that the country receives every year, also lobbied for the re-establishment of the Conservation Fund for greater support for the protection of the environment.
The week culminated on Wednesday evening with discussions towards the eventual agreement of an action document, communique, that will guide the initiatives of both the Territories and the UK Government over the next twelve months.
On Thursday morning the Premier attended bilateral meetings with James Duddridge, Minister with responsibility for the Overseas Territories and The Rt. Hon. Desmond Swayne, Secretary of State of the Department for International Development (DFID) to address matters of national concern including constitutional concerns, the state of the economy in relation to the small and medium businesses (SME) and support for combatting illegal immigration and national security.
While in London, the Premier will also be hosting a Turks and Caicos Islands Reception on Friday evening in celebration of the opening of a Turks and Caicos Islands Home Office in London that will cater to the furtherance of the country's interests in the areas of Tourism, Investment and Financial Services. Expected to be in attendance are Leaders of the Overseas Territories, Turks and Caicos Islands Students, residents living in the United Kingdom, tourism partners, potential investors and friends of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Digicel Team resolves issues in the TCI
Telecommunications giant Digicel is assuring valued customers in the Turks and Caicos Islands that the connectivity issues experienced by some prepaid customers has been resolved.
Trina Adams, Marketing Specialist with Digicel Turks and Caicos told the media in a press release: "Digicel is aware of an issue whereby, as a result of the extensive work we are carrying out on our network as we upgrade to the fastest and most advanced LTE mobile data service, some prepaid customers experienced connectivity issues on their calls. This issue has now fully been resolved. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise sincerely to our customers for these issues and to assure them that the Digicel team worked tirelessly to fix the issue in the shortest possible time. At Digicel, we pride ourselves on ensuring that our customers benefit from the best value coupled with the best service delivered by the best network - as such we take any issue very seriously."
Digicel Group is a leading global communications provider with operations in 33 markets in the Caribbean.
99% of Russian athletes guilty of doping, German TV alleges
As many as 99% of Russian athletes are guilty of doping, a German TV documentary has alleged.
The programme claims that Russian officials systematically accepted payment from athletes to supply banned substances and cover up tests.
The documentary, shown by Das Erste, also implicates the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in covering up the abuse.
The Russian Athletics Federation (RAF) says the allegations are "lies".
However, both the IAAF and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) have said they will look into the claims.
The IAAF said it had "noted a number of grave allegations" and revealed that an investigation into some of the claims was "already ongoing".
The BBC has not independently verified the documentary's allegations and is awaiting responses from athletes targeted in the programme.
In the documentary, broadcast on Wednesday, former discus thrower Yevgeniya Pecherina claimed that "most, the majority, 99%" of athletes selected to represent Russia use banned substances.
"You can get absolutely everything," added the 25-year-old Russian. "Everything the athlete wants."
Pecherina is currently serving a 10-year doping ban that is due to end in 2023. She had already been handed a two-year suspension in 2011.
Liliya Shobukhova, who won the London Marathon in 2010, is also interviewed in the programme and admits paying the Russian Athletics Federation 450,000 euros (£350,000) to cover up a positive doping test.
She is currently serving a two-year ban after irregularities were detected in her biological passport.
The documentary also included an undercover video purporting to show 800m runner Mariya Savinova, who won gold at the 2012 Olympics in London, admitting to using the banned steroid oxandrolone.
The video was dubbed into German with the original audio track absent, but the channel said it possessed an unedited version.
Source-BBC Sports
St Vincent gov’t offers tax break on end-of-year bonuses
The St Vincent and the Grenadines government says it will give a tax break to any firm or individual employer who pays their workers an end-of-year bonuses of EC$250 (One EC Dollar=US$0.37 cents) or more.
Employees will not be taxed on the first EC$250 on any bonus that they receive,” said Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, who is also finance minister.
“A private company or any private employer who gives a bonus up to 250 dollars -- they can give more …, that worker will not have to pay any tax on that bonus, which means they will save 60-something dollars.
“If they get a bonus of EC$500, they will pay tax on the second EC$250 but not on the first EC$250,” Gonsalves said on his new radio programme, “Ask Prime Minister”.
“And, for the employer, to encourage the employer, half of that EC$250 -- the firstEC$ 250 -- will go as a tax credit towards the company or the individual’s tax, the corporate tax, for the business,” he said.
He described the tax breaks as “quite a concession”.
Gonsalves said that Anthony “Tony” Regisford, executive director of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, is “ecstatic” about the policy.
“He loves it,” Gonsalves said of Regisford.
“I have talked to several companies, they love it. I mean, I would tell you that Joel Providence of Coreas, he said, ‘Prime Minister, this is very encouraging.‘ I think they are giving about 300 persons bonuses,” Gonsalves said.
The Prime Minister noted that his government will this month pay out EC$3.5 million in wages to road workers.
“We are power washing the market,” he said of the Central Market in Kingstown, adding, “So, the state is doing a number of things.”
Source-CMC
Russia's President says 'West Wants to Weaken Russia'
Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out today Thursday at the United States and its European allies, saying Western sanctions for Russia's annexation of Crimea were just an excuse to weaken the country.
Delivering his annual state of the nation speech to legislators, Kremlin officials and other leaders on Thursday, Putin said the sanctions are not just a reaction of the U.S. and its allies over Russia's response to the events and a coup in Ukraine.
"I am certain that if all this did not take place ... they would come up with another reason to contain Russia's growing capabilities, to influence it or, even better, use it for its own goals," the Russian leader said.
Putin said the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine, that ousted Russia-backed President Viktor Yanukovich in February, was an armed coup supported by the West that justified Russian intervention.
"What we are seeing now in Ukraine, the tragedy in the southeast, fully confirms that our position is right," Putin said.
Fighting this year between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels has killed more than 4,300 people.
He also referred to Crimea as Russia's spiritual ground, calling the region "the same as Temple Mount in Jerusalem for those who confess Islam and Judaism."
Putin spoke after a rare and deadly rebel attack in the Chechen capital, Grozny. He said such acts of separatism are being supported by the West.
He said although Moscow has been treating its former Cold War enemies as close friends and almost allies, the support for separatism in Russia is coming from abroad, including political and financial help from spy agencies.
The President also warned Russians of hard times ahead and urged self-reliance, in his annual state-of-the nation address to parliament.
Russia has been hit hard by falling oil prices and by Western sanctions imposed in response to its interventions in the crisis in neighbouring Ukraine.
The rouble, once a symbol of stability under Mr Putin, suffered its biggest one-day decline since 1998 on Monday.
The government has warned that Russia will fall into recession next year.
Argentine footballer Franco Nieto dies after attack
Argentine football player Franco Nieto, 33, has died after being struck in the head following a match on Saturday.
Nieto, the captain of regional club Tiro Federal, was attacked by hooligans after a match against rivals Chacarita Juniors in the town of Aimogasta, in north-west Argentina.
The match was stopped 15 minutes before full time after the referee sent off eight players for fighting.
This year, 15 people have died in football-related violence in Argentina.
Nieto's cousin, Pablo Nieto, said three people surrounded the player as he was going to his car with his wife and one-month-old daughter.
They kicked and punched him before one of the attackers struck Nieto in the head with a stone, leaving him unconscious.
He was operated on on Tuesday but died on Wednesday.
Local police chief Fabian Bordon told local media that three people had been detained in connection with the attack.
Zimbabwe's Mugabe anger over Joyce Mujuru 'death plot'
Zimbabwe's president has spoken of his anger that his embattled deputy Joyce Mujuru allegedly plotted to assassinate him and accused her of being a thief.
Speaking at the ruling Zanu-PF party's congress, Robert Mugabe said he would act against all corrupt officials.
Mrs Mujuru's absence from the congress showed she was "scared", he added.
Recently expelled Zanu-PF member Robert Gumbo told the BBC the 90-year-old leader had "completely" turned the party into his "personal property".
Mr Mugabe had targeted Mrs Mujuru to advance the "fortunes" of his wife Grace, the former Zanu-PF spokesman added.
Mrs Mujuru, who has previously denied the allegations, had been seen as a potential successor to Mr Mugabe, with whom she fought for Zimbabwe's independence from white-minority rule.
However, her career ran into trouble when Mrs Mugabe entered into politics this year, and accused her of plotting against her husband.
The congress, being held in the capital Harare, is expected to elect the first lady as the head of Zanu-PF's women's wing.
Source-BBC
150 health workers receive Ebola training from Cuba
The Ministry of Health in Jamaica today announced that more than 150 health care workers will be trained by two Cuban experts over the next three weeks as part of the Ebola preparedness, response and management activities.
The training will cover epidemiology, patient management, safety, infection control, use of personal protective equipment, risks associated with Ebola and isolation, the ministry said in a release Thursday.
The training, which started on Monday, consists four sessions, each conducted over a three-day period.
Among the participants being trained are doctors and nurses from the public and private health sector, representatives from the University Hospital of the West Indies and the School of Public Health, University of Technology, the ministry said.
These persons along with the 30 Cuban workers who arrived in the island in November will be a part of the team of health staff in preparation for any possibility of Ebola reaching Jamaica.
The training being done by the Cubans is part of an agreement reached during a mission to Cuba in October led by Minister of Health, Dr Fenton Ferguson.
The two Cubans, who are experts in the field of Microbiology and Epidemiology, arrived in Jamaica on Saturday, November 29th from the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) in Havana.
According to the release, Cuba has also agreed to deploy doctors and nurses to assist in the response if Jamaica experiences an outbreak of Ebola.
St Kitts/Nevis PM promises tax free budget
Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas is promising nationals of the twin island federation, an early Christmas gift.
He has already informed them that on Tuesday next week, when he presents the national budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year, it will contain no new taxes.
“I do not intend to steal my own thunder… What I will say in reference to next week’s budget presentation, however, is that the people of St Kitts and Nevis, over the years, have given the government the space it needed for its policies to work. Those policies have worked.
“We thank the people for their faith and support and because the people allowed the government’s policies to work, there will be no need for any new taxes in the government’s 2015 budget,” Dr Douglas, announced at his monthly press conference on Wednesday.
Dr Douglas who is also the finance minister, said the policies put forward by his administration have already propelled St Kitts and Nevis to the leading position in the Eastern Caribbean in terms of manufactured exports to the United States, economic growth, direct foreign investment, and other key metrics.
He said the fiscal package “will make clear the fact that this government is poised to implement a development plan that will builds on the unquestioned transformations that we have already produced all across the nation, and I urge the close attention of both the media and the public to this event.”
Earlier, at a political meeting of his ruling St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP), Prime Minister Douglas said that the budget would set the framework for the continued development of St Kitts and Nevis for the next five years.
There has been widespread speculation that Prime Minister Douglas would soon announce the date for a general election here and he told reporters that the budget would provide a firsthand “glimpse of what Labour intends to do beginning with 2015 over the next five years”.
He said the Federation’s national debt will be an issue in the election campaign given the success of his administration in reducing the debt.
“When we speak of where we go from here, we want to be able to tackle very seriously the challenges that we are facing ... national debt was one of the highest in the world, it is today from 200 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product), the national debt is just below 90 per cent, maybe 87 percent is what it is right now as I speak,” Dr Douglas said. He gave no figures.
Source-CMC
Britain abolishes travel tax for children under 12
United Kingdom’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has announced the abolition of Air Passenger Duty (APD) for children under 12 from next May.
Osborne also pledged to abolish APD for children under 16 as of May 1, 2016.
The announcement, part of today's Autumn Statement by the Treasury, could provide a significant fillip to travel. The industry coalition A Fair Tax on Flying launched a campaign to demand the scrapping of APD on under-12s only last week, media reports out of the UK said.
The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) says it is celebrating the abolition of the Air Passenger Duty (APD) for children 12 years of age and under, starting in May 2015 as announced today by British Chancellor George Osborne.
"We welcome today's announcement by Chancellor Osborne about the elimination of the Air Passenger Duty on children as this alleviates costs for family vacations and essentially cuts the taxes in half for a family of two adults and two children," said Jeffrey S Vasser, CEO of CHTA.
“The timing of the abolition of the tax will further benefit families as vacations in the Caribbean are reduced for summertime travel," he added.
Today's announcement adds to the good news Chancellor Osborne released earlier this year with regards to reforming the current four-band system for the APD to a two-band system starting April 1, 2015, CHTA said in a release.
Under the new two-band system, the release added, all long-haul flights (over 4,000 miles) will be moved into band B, which means UK customers travelling to the Caribbean will pay the same tax as if they were travelling to the United States.
According to the budget, from April 1, 2015, the tax on long-haul flights between 4,001 and 6,000 miles will be reduced by £14 per person, while those over 6,000 miles will be cut by £26.
With today's announcement, a family of four (two adults, two children) could save over £140 starting May 2015, CHTA said.