Jaguar, Land Rover confirms Brazil car factory plans
Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed plans to build a car plant in Brazil capable of producing 24,000 vehicles a year.
The UK car company had been in talks about the project with authorities in Rio de Janeiro for months.
JLR, the luxury car unit of India's Tata, said that it would invest £240m (750m reais) in the factory, which would begin production in 2016.
JLR, which is also building a plant in China, is targeting the new rich in emerging economies.
Dr Ralf Speth, chief executive of JLR, said: "Brazil and the surrounding regions are very important. Customers there have an increasing appetite for highly capable premium products."
JLR's sales in Brazil for the first ten months of 2013 have increased by more than 40% to 9,549 vehicles. The company's best-selling models in the country are the Range Rover Evoque, Freelander and Discovery
Producing cars locally means JLR will avoid Brazil's high import tariffs. Nor does JLR have to form a partnership with a Brazilian company, as it had to in China.
As part of its joint venture in China with the Chery Automobile Company, JLR is building a manufacturing plant at Changshu.
Tata bought Jaguar and Land Rover in 2008 and has won plaudits for the way it has re-established the two prestige marques.
In September, JLR announced plans to create 1,700 jobs at its plant in Solihull in the UK as part of a £1.5bn investment to expand its product range.
Ex-Goldman Sachs trader ordered to repay firm $118m
An ex-Goldman Sachs trader has been sentenced to nine months in prison and ordered to repay $188m ( £115m) over a botched 2007 trade.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) accused Matthew Taylor of deliberately hiding an unauthorized $8.3bn trade from supervisors.
US Attorney General Preet Bharara said Mr Taylor pursued the trades out of "both greed and hubris".
Mr Taylor turned himself in eight months ago.
Goldman Sachs said it discovered Mr Taylor's concealment on 14 December 2007 and then spent $118m to unwind the position.
US Judge William Pauley agreed with prosecutors and ordered Mr Taylor to pay back the full amount.
However, he stopped short of granting the full 41 month prison term sought by the DOJ.
Mr Taylor has already been fined $500,000 by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over his trading.
Goldman Sachs was forced to pay a $1.5m civil fine last year to settle separate CFTC charges that it failed to supervise Mr Taylor.
LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION ON MANDELA’S PASSING
Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Sharlene Cartwright Robinson issued a release to the media on Friday after the passing of South African Leader, Nelson Mandela. In her release she states that Thursday, December 5th 2013 will be remembered as the day the world suffered a great human loss. It also marks the beginning of a period of celebration, great reflection and introspection.
Mandiba, Nelson Mandela, a South African has through the life he lived taught great lessons that transcended geographical and racial lines. Remembered and revered as an Apartheid Hero, he endured much in his struggle for a free South Africa. His incarceration of nearly three decades in one of his country’s toughest prisons, birthed an even greater human as he chose on his release to pursue reconciliation and to foster unity. He was angry but he triumphed over that and employed strategies for peace realizing that he could accomplish much more.
A man of vision and purpose, he understood the importance of remaining focus on the greater cause despite the distractions and the greatest atrocities. He taught through his life the importance of love and forgiveness even for those who attempted to destroy him and break his spirit.
His death reminds us of the great lessons his life has taught and it ought to inspire us to stand firm and fight for the causes that will make our individual countries and world better. As we move forward over the next few weeks trying to capture the man and the message, let us remember to keep his family who has lost him over and over and his South African People in prayer as they mourn this great loss.
A Noble Peace Prize Winner, he became the first democratically elected President of a free South Africa and his humility was shown even more when he elected to serve a sole term and not to clamor for or cling onto power. While Mandela set out only to affect his nation, he ended up inspiring his country and the world.
A great Warrior now given a well - deserved rest! A great human loss, but his spirit and inspiration for the attainment of peace and freedom will forever live on. May his soul rest in peace and rise in glory.
That was the full text from the Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Sharlene Cartwright Robinson.
CARICOM developing qualifications framework
A Caribbean Qualifications Framework, with a view to creating a seamless education and training system for CARICOM member states is being developed.
That’s according to Dr Ruby Alleyne, the new president of the Caribbean Area Net for Quality Assurance in Tertiary Education and lecturer at the University of Trinidad & Tobago Dr Ruby Alleyne who was on island this week facilitating an evaluator’s workshop hosted by the National Accreditation Board.
“This CARICOM Qualifications Framework it’s being called is going to be a ten level framework,” Dr Alleyne indicated earlier this week.
This ten level framework, she explained, spans from the basic entry level to the education system which is primary, right through secondary, including technical, vocational, education and training and going straight up to the doctoral level.
“It creates a seamless education and training system so that we can plan for and monitor the progression of any CARICOM citizen, from the entry into education right to the highest level that he or she wants to achieve”.
This Caribbean Qualifications Framework will therefore standardize the requirements for different qualifications within a country and across the region.
This is necessary because at the moment, “we have a situation where a certificate in Dominica by one institution may not be the same as a certificate offered by another institution in Dominica, or one offered in Trinidad & Tobago, or St Lucia”.
Thus, the CARICOM qualification’s framework “will ensure that when something called a certificate is offered in one territory, it is going to be comparable to a certificate offered in another territory”.
It will also ensure that the person who holds that certificate has the same kind of skills and competencies and is able to do the same thing.
“So that workers who are certified at each level can move freely throughout the region with the confidence that the skills that they carry have the same kind of value,” is the overall goal of the framework, Dr Alleyne noted.
Source-Dominica Vibes News
Dominica wants Europe to lift visa requirement to stimulate trade
Dominica says it is pursuing efforts to get the European Union to remove the visa requirements for nationals travelling to Europe, saying that it was important to stimulate trade under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed with Europe five years ago.
Junior Foreign Affairs Minister Alvin Bernard said Dominica has joined several countries in making the request.
‘We have made some progress and we have had tremendous commitment from various representatives of the Council, but at the moment, the most recent report that we have received is that the Council is at the moment preoccupied with two other countries that have been included on the negative list.
“Apparently the consideration of the request from Dominica is still for consideration…but it has been delayed because of the countries from the Middle Eastern area included on the list”.
Bernard said Dominica was pursing the initiative “because we see the lifting of the visa requirement for Dominica and other affected countries, particularly signatories to the Economic partnership Agreement as critical.
Dominica and other countries of the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) grouping signed the EPA in October 2008 that also provides substantial EU aid for trade.
According to the European Union website, the purpose of the agreement is to make it easier for people and businesses from the two regions to invest in and trade with each other and thus to help Caribbean countries grow their economies and create jobs.
“As you know we are signatories to the Economic Partnership Agreement between ACP (African Caribbean and Pacific) countries and the European Union and in order to fulfill the objectives of this agreement it is critical that we have free movement of our respective citizens because the EPA covers a number of areas including trade and in order to fulfill that it is important that we have free movement,” said Bernard.
Last year, Cecilia Malmström, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs said the Commission was putting in place measures to allow citizens from six Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries travel to the Schengen area without a visa.
She said the change is more than “just a symbolic gesture” and was intended to have a direct impact between the European Commission and Grenada.
The countries named were St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.
The Schengen area includes 22 EU member states and four associated States. The visa waiver will also apply to Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus which are not yet full members of the Schengen area.
Source-Caribbean Media Corporation
High prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in the Caribbean
Reluctance to fully implement the health and family life education (HFLE) programmes in Caribbean schools have been identified as major factors contributing to the high prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in the Caribbean, according to a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report.
The 2013 UNFPA’s State of the World Report indicates that continuous bombardment in the media of programmes and advertisements with sexual overtones have also contributed to the situation.
According to the UNFPA State of World Population report 2013, entitled “Motherhood in Childhood in the Caribbean”, despite the fall in total fertility rate, adolescent birth rates remain relatively high.
It said that among girls aged 15 to 19 years old, the birth rate ranges from 26 to 97 per 1,000 adolescent girls.
Guyana, Belize, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda and Suriname have the highest teen pregnancy rates in the Caribbean.
UNFPA’s sub-regional office Assistant Representative, Aurora Noguera Ramkissoon, said the reluctance to teach HFLE in schools stems from fear that faith-based organizations may brand the education system as promoting sex instead of empowering young people to abstain.
“There is a kind of dichotomy in the region where we’re very much influenced by our colonial past, our religious past, so there is some reluctance to fully implement the Health and Family Life Education,” Ramkissoon told regional media, at a briefing held on Friday.
Source-CMC
Courtroom cleared for 'sensitive' testimony in Kartel case
The Court will today continue to hear submissions on what aspect of testimony from former Cybercrime Unit boss, Sergeant Patrick Linton, will be put before jurors in the Vybz Kartel murder trial.
Yesterday, the jurors were sent home until Monday and the courtroom cleared to allow Justice Lennox Campbell to hear the evidence on which a determination of admissibility is to be made.
Lead prosecutor Jeremy Taylor asked the media to leave the courtroom for the process given the implication the evidence may have on national security. He said technology will be discussed that is being used in other investigations.
Linton's evidence relates to telephone and other devices seized from the entertainer.
Vybz Kartel (real name Adidja Palmer), Shawn 'Shawn Storm' Campbell, Kahira Jones, Andre St John, and Shane Williams are on trial for the murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams on August 16, 2011. The prosecution is contending that the murder was committed at the entertainer's Havendale, St Andrew, home.
Jamaicans mourn Mandela
Jamaicans from all walks of life Friday expressed regrets at the passing of former South African president and leader of the fight against Apartheid, Nelson Mandela.
In Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew, at the park named in his honour, Jamaicans paused to give their opinion of Mandela.
“Words cannot express, if I choose words it will take away from the sophistication of the man,” said John Powell an artist.
“Is a great man, as you can see, a Mandela Park we deh,” said a youth taking a break in the green area in the middle of the commercial hub.
A man giving his name only as Ras Miller added, “Nelson Mandela ah one a mi number one icon … from prison to presidency…he comes with a forgiving heart.”
Meanwhile, a number of local organisations expressed condolences at the icon’s passing.
The Jamaica Teachers' Association in its message said that Mandela’s passing has “left a void that cannot be filled."
Generation 2000 (G2K) the youth arm of the Jamaica Labour Party also expressed “profound sadness” at Mandela's passing.
“Nelson Mandela epitomised all that we should strive for as leaders and as people. His humility, dedication and selflessness made him into the iconic symbol of freedom for the world and before our very eyes he showed the world how the impossible can become possible once you never lose your resolve,” said G2K president Floyd Green.
The National Democratic Movement also expressed condolences to Mandela's family and the people of South Africa.
"It is with a feeling of profound sadness that the National Democratic Movement mourns the passing of Former South African President, the icon Nelson Mandela, a true Statesman, a Patriot to his country and a Loyalist to his people.
The world has lost one of its brightest lights but this great and inspirational leader of leaders has left a permanent footprint in the sands of time," the political party said in a statement.
Woman guilty over fake cash in Cayman
A 30 year old Bodden Town woman and mother of three was found guilty of four offenses relating to counterfeit cash Friday by a jury.
Shannon Ebanks was convicted of possessing and using a forged CI$10 bill in the Evaglow bar in Bodden Town in and possessing more than 40 partially printed CI$25 bills and equipment that could be used to in counterfeiting such as paper, a copier, metallic pens, a counterfeit detection pen and the same types of metal strips used in CIMA currency at her home which she shared with her boyfriend. Ebanks had denied knowing the bill she used in the bar was forged or anything about the hidden cash which police had found secreted in a magazine on a high shelf in the bathroom she and her partner shared.
During the week long trial, Ebanks defense attorney, John Furniss had argued that there was no forensic evidence such as DNA or prints on the fake notes found at home to link her to them and anyone of a number of people who were staying and visiting the house could have hidden the fake notes. Ebanks also took the stand and denied knowing anything about the partially printed fake notes or that the money she claimed had been given to her in change was forged. In addition, her boyfriend, Shane Bodden also gave evidence on her behalf and admitted that the silver strips were his having come from old notes, that he said had been washed by mistake.
However, crown counsel, Kenneth Ferguson argued that Ebanks did have knowledge that the money she used in the bar was fake as a result of the totality of the evidence. He pointed to the coincidence of her using forged money in a bar which she claimed had been given to her at Foster's supermarket and yet a few months later forged cash was also found hidden in her home along with equipment used to make counterfeit currency.
The judge directed the jury on Friday morning that the key issue in the case was whether or not Ebanks knew the cash she used in the bar was fake or not and whether she had knowledge of the fake notes hidden in her home and that the paper, metal strips and pens etc were being used to make forged money. He said they could only find Ebanks guilty if they were sure she had that knowledge.
Following the discharge of one member of the jury as a result of illness, it took the remaining three men and three women, three hours to return their guilty verdicts and Ebanks was bailed to appear for sentencing in February.
Morocco delegation visits president Medina in the Palace
President Danilo Medina received a delegation from the Kingdom of Morocco in the National Palace Friday morning, headed by Parliament vice president Abdelwahed Alansari.
The lawmaker was accompanied Morocco ambassador Brahim Houssein Moussa, and Ouadia Ben Abdellah, member of the Kingdom’s parliament.
The President’s Press Office posted the information on Twitter, but didn't provide details.