Grenada Governor General to be knighted on Friday
Governor-General, Dr Cecile La Grenade, is to be knighted during a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace in England on Friday.
A brief government statement said Dame La Grenade will have a private audience with Her Majesty The Queen on the July 9, and be knighted by Her Majesty, two days later.
The statement said that La Grenade, who has already left Grenada, will also travel to the United States on private business before returning home on July 22.
Source-CMC
Jamaicans to benefit from US$37-m public sector project – World Bank
The World Bank says Jamaicans will benefit from improved service delivery and enhanced business climate as a result of a US$37 million project for public sector transformation.
The Washington-based financial institution said that the project will improve customs administration and standardization, and modernise the public sector by strengthening government capacity and effectiveness in service delivery.
“Together with the Jamaican government and development partners, we are working to help drive necessary reforms that will increase efficiency and maximize the use of available resources to create a more vibrant business environment and boost the economy,” said Sophie Sirtaine, World Bank Country Director for the Caribbean.
Sirtaine said the Strategic Public Sector Transformation project will specifically strengthen the Public Investment Management System and improve monitoring through citizens’ participation.
It will also implement results-based budgeting to make more efficient and strategic allocation of resources for public investments, roll out new standard operating procedures for customs to reduce the time and lower transaction costs for trading internationally.
Additionally, Sirtaine said the project will strengthen the Bureau of Standards to provide improved services to the trading community.
“Without public sector reform, we cannot effectively create the vibrant business environment needed to expand our economy and provide real opportunities for jobs and investment to secure our future,” said Jamaica’s Minister of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips.
As Jamaica recovers from the effects of the 2008 global crisis, the World Bank said the government has also reaffirmed its commitment to tackle some of the key public sector challenges.
The bank said the project builds on ongoing efforts in public financial management and customs administration supported by other grants from Canada and the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID).
Source-CMC
Teacher admits sexually assaulting students in Cayman
A thirty-two year old school teacher pleaded guilty to indecent assault on Friday as well as possessing an indecent image of a child in connection with allegations, that he sexually molested at least three students in his care.
Delroy James who has been suspended from his job at a government high school was remanded in custody to return to court on 1 August to answer seven more related charges.
James defence attorney told the court that he needed time to discuss the other charges with his client before pleas were considered which also include child cruelty.
Source-CNS
TNT state picks up US$1.3m tab for footballers
Former national football player Brent Sancho was brought to tears as Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar agreed to pay the Soca Warriors the outstanding US$1.3 million for their role in the 2006 Fifa World Cup campaign in Germany. That figure represented the sum owed to the players by the T&T Football Association. Some of the players accepted lower sums while Sancho and the others demanded the full payment. Yesterday, Persad-Bissessar, during a hastily arranged news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, promised the footballers the remaining money. She said the matter was discussed and approved by Cabinet.
Apart from Sancho, Stern John and others attended the event. She said the government was under no legal obligation to make any payment to the players. “We are not unmindful of the long and protracted legal battles waged by these football heroes of ours,” she added. She said the team had brought the nation together when it qualified for the finals. They were “still owed and entitled to a payment from an entity, in the TTFF, that is unlikely to be in a position to pay,” she said but added that the payment would in no way prejudice any other course of action being pursued by the players.
Sancho, who spoke on behalf of the players, said they were committed to the legal challenge against the TTFF and when they succeeded and were paid they would repay the Government.
He said the players were overwhelmed by the decision by the Government to pay them. “This moment means more than we can describe,” he added. He recalled the humiliation, torment and even blacklisting of the players since they made the demands and said the careers of some of the Soca Warriors had ended prematurely. John spoke with reporters afterwards, saying administrators must take the footballers more seriously and treat them with more respect.
In many instances, he said, administrators travel comfortably while the players were cramped for space but the footballer must be treated with more respect if the sport is to be rebuilt in T&T.
Meanwhile, Persad-Bissessar also announced she was leaving for Brazil yesterday to attend the World Cup semifinals and finals on Sunday on a private trip with her grandson. She said the trip was privately funded.
Source-Guardian Media
Senior official arrested for scalping
A senior executive with the official World Cup corporate hospitality provider was arrested yesterday in the plush beachside hotel where FIFA President Sepp Blatter is staying, as part of a Brazilian police investigation into illegal ticket sales.
Ray Whelan, a director of MATCH Services, was arrested at the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro, the hotel used by senior FIFA officials during the World Cup.
Whelan was detained as part of a larger police investigation dubbed “Operation Jules Rimet”. He was characterised by police investigator Fabio Barucke as being the “facilitator” who allowed a large ring of scalpers to have access to tickets.
In an emailed statement, police said Whelan was heard on wiretapped phone calls negotiating ticket prices with Algerian national Mohamadou Lamine Fofana, who they accuse of being the ringleader of the scalpers.
Whelan was arrested inside his luxury suite yesterday afternoon, where police said they confiscated 82 tickets for upcoming matches, along with Whelan’s computer, cellphone and other unspecified documents.
Under Brazilian law, the 64-year-old Whelan may only be charged by prosecutors after they receive the complete police investigation, which officers have 30 days to complete. Investigators said Whelan was still being questioned inside a precinct yesterday evening – and that he would spend the night in jail.
A spokesman for MATCH Hospitality, the subsidiary in the MATCH group of companies implicated in the investigation, didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
Re-selling World Cup tickets for profit is illegal in Brazil and against FIFA rules. Police arrested 11 people, including Fofana, and seized 131 game tickets last week – at least 70 of them for corporate hospitality.
Police said then that Fofana had connections to FIFA or MATCH, and the original source of the tickets to be sold at hugely inflated prices was “someone higher up”. Police said they had information from 50 000 phone calls they tapped during their scalping investigation and Fofana had access to restricted areas at the Copacabana Palace.
MATCH Hospitality is the main provider of hospitality packages for the World Cup and paid $240 million for the exclusive rights to sell corporate hospitality at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. Blatter’s nephew, Philippe Blatter, is the president of a company which is a shareholder in MATCH Hospitality.
FIFA said earlier yesterday that it had provided police with lists of telephone numbers for its staff and that of its service providers, which included MATCH, the group which runs ticketing, travel, accommodation and technology services at the World Cup. MATCH Hospitality had earlier distanced itself from the ticket scalping scandal in a statement.
“MATCH Hospitality will be fully assisting the police in investigating the matter,” it said.
Of the more than three million purchasable tickets for the tournament, 445 500 were allocated to MATCH Hospitality, according to FIFA. Any unsold or unused corporate hospitality tickets should be returned to FIFA to be made available to the public.
Police estimated last week that the scalping ring was making one million Brazilian reals ($455 000) per game by re-selling tickets on the black market. They were hoping to get $16 000 per ticket for the July 13 World Cup final in Rio, they said.
Fofana runs a company that is one of MATCH Hospitality’s customers. MATCH said yesterday that Fofana’s Atlanta Sportif Management and three other companies, two of them official MATCH Hospitality agents, had their remaining World Cup ticket allocations blocked or cancelled after some of their tickets ended up in the hands of scalpers.
Source-AP
Shakira, Wyclef to perform at World Cup closing ceremony
Colombian pop star Shakira and hip hop artist Wyclef Jean will perform at the World Cup's closing ceremony in Brazil.
Shakira will be at the World Cup for the third time and sing her ‘La la la (Brazil 2014)’ with Brazil's Carlinhos Brown ahead of the July 13 final at Rio de Janeiro's Maracana Stadium.
Wyclef, guitarist Santana and Alexandre Pires will combine on Dar Um Jeito, the main theme song for the World Cup.
Announcing the lineup, FIFA also said Brazilian singer-songwriter Ivete Sangalo "will bring a distinctive local flavor to the show" with a medley of well-known Brazilian numbers and will be joined by Pires.
Source-AP
World Bank funds for Grenada
The Grenada government says the World Bank has approved a US$15 million disbursement for the island.
It follows last week's approval by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of a US$21.9 million structural adjustment programme.
A government statement said that the island will receive another disbursement from the World Bank as the island implements its "homegrown" structural adjustment programme with IMF support.
Prime Minister Keith Mitchell noted that the World Bank has once again "demonstrated its highly valued support for Grenada to increase resilience, enhance competitiveness and promote faster and higher economic growth.
"This is further evidence of the confidence of the international community in Grenada's policies, especially as regarding the home-grown programme," he added.
Source— CMC
St Kitts/Nevis opens embassy in Cuba, calls on US to end embargo
St Kitts/Nevis has opened an embassy in Cuba and has called on the United States to end its decade old trade and economic embargo against the only Communist country in the Caribbean.
A government statement said that Foreign Affairs Minister Patrice Nisbett told delegates to the opening of the embassy that Basseterre would continue to support the annual United Nations General Assembly vote calling on Washington to remove the embargo placed on the island when Fidel Casyro assumed power 50 years ago.
“We continue to avail ourselves of every opportunity and in every forum to appeal to the United States of America to bring to an immediate end its unfair treatment of the Cuban people who continue to suffer unreasonably as a result of the decades old embargo. Cuba is our neighbour.
“Cuba is our friend and we shall continue to exploit all possible means of speaking on their behalf in the international community on this issue,” said Nisbett.
The St. Kitts-Nevis government has noted that the majority of countries within this hemisphere has supported Cuba in its quest for “normal and constructive relations” with all nations around the world.
The United States and a handful of countries have consistently voted against ending the embargo.
Hurricane Arthur leaves thousands without power
Proving far less damaging than feared, Hurricane Arthur left tens of thousands of people without power Friday in a swipe at North Carolina's dangerously exposed Outer Banks, then brought lousy Fourth of July beach weather to the Northeast as it veered out to sea.
The weather along the narrow barrier islands — whose beaches draw scores of tourists every summer — was already clearing Friday as Arthur's outer bands scraped the Delaware and New Jersey shores. Forecasters did predict a second landfall Saturday evening in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Canada.
Arthur struck North Carolina as a Category 2 storm with winds of 100 mph late Thursday, taking about five hours to move across the far eastern part of the state.
About 40,000 people lost power, and the rush of water from the ocean on one side and the sound on the other side buckled part of North Carolina Highway 12 in a spot on Hatteras Island that was breached in Hurricane Irene in 2011. Dozens of workers were heading to fix the highway, and the Department of Transportation said it was confident the road would reopen Saturday as long as an underwater sonar test of a key bridge showed no problems.
No injuries or deaths were reported. After praising emergency officials and saying the state dodged a bullet, Gov McCrory noted that all of North Carolina's beaches were open outside of the Outer Banks and encouraged residents and visitors to enjoy the holiday. He was heading to the beach himself for an Independence Day parade in Southport, a welcome surprise when he expected to be stuck in Raleigh monitoring the storm all day.
"The North Carolina beaches are open for business and they're open for tourists," McCrory said. "The umbrellas are going up as we speak right now."
By 11:00 am Friday, Arthur had weakened to a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds around 90 mph, and additional weakening is expected, the US National Hurricane Centre said. The centre was about 100 miles east-southeast of Ocean City, Maryland, and the storm was moving northeast near 24 mph.
While the Northeast wasn't expected to take a direct hit, the rain from Arthur's outer bands was disrupting the holiday. Fireworks displays in New Jersey and Maine were postponed until later in the weekend. Tropical storm warnings were in effect for coastal areas as far north as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Tropical storm watches and warnings were in effect for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in southeastern Canada.
Neymar ruled out of World Cup with fractured vertebrae
Brazil on Friday, July 4 lost superstar striker Neymar for the World Cup after he fractured a vertebrae during his side's 2-1 World Cup quarter final win over Colombia.
Colombia defender Juan Zuniga kneed the 22-year-old Neymar in a crunching tackle and the Barcelona player was stretchered off in agony in the closing minutes of the game in Forteleza.
The injury and the suspension of captain Thiago Silva for the semi-final against Germany overshadowed a sensational David Luiz goal that sealed victory in one of the most physical games seen at this World Cup.
A hospital exam "showed he suffered a fracture of the third vertebra" in his back, team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar told reporters.
Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari fumed that Neymar has been "hunted" throughout the tournament and that no punishment was given for the tackle on him.
"I have been saying for three matches that Neymar has been hunted, but all the other countries say it is not true and it is only their players that are hunted."
Silva was booked for a second time in the tournament for impeding a clearance by Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina.
But in Zuniga's case "there was not even a yellow card and Thiago got a yellow card for nothing," Scolari said.
Brazil are in the World Cup semi-finals for the first time in 12 years, but Scolari, who has vowed his side will win their sixth World Cup, now faces a major crisis.