TCI Officials in Jamaica for Comprehensive Disaster Management Conference
A delegation of senior Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) government officers are in Jamaica to attend the 8th Annual Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM), which starts today December 2, and will run until the 6th, in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Minister of Government Support Services, Hon. George Lightbourne; Deputy Permanent Secretary, Government Support Services, Mr. Russell Cox; Dr. Virginia Clerveaux, Director, DDME and Mr. Brian Been, from the Turks and Caicos Tourist Board will be taking part in the sessions. On December 5th 2013, Dr. Clerveaux will chair the session on “Social Investment for Disaster Resilience”.
The annual CDM Conference is the Caribbean’s premier event on Disaster Risk Management. It is also regarded as the regional forum of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) global platform organised by Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) in collaboration with its partners, the Conference provides a unique opportunity for facilitating networking among disaster risk management practitioners, Donors, NGOs, personnel from all levels of Government and the private sector, scientists and social science researchers, members of civil society and other CDM Stakeholders. It is also structured to promote good practice, share ongoing research and chart the way forward for the advancement of CDM in the Caribbean.
More than 400 delegates are expected to attend the 8th CDM Conference which will be held at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort and Spa under the theme CDM for Resilient Development: A Good Investment.
IT’S A DOLLHOUSE FOR TCI TOP MODEL 2014!
Organizers of the 2014 TCI Top Model Contest & Fashion Extravaganza are on the hunt for its next fashion darlings! And, to this effect, they will be holding a Contestants and Fashion Models Search for next year’s themed event: The Dollhouse!
The TCI Top Model Contest & Fashion Extravaganza is an event where beauty, fashion and drama collide to create an evening of true opulence and glamour. This hotly anticipated event is expected be more extravagant than before, with a bevy of prizes, surprises and guest appearances.
But before the May 2nd 2014 event date, the Search is on for The Face of the Turks & Caicos’ preeminent title – TCI Top Model 2014! The Contestants and Fashion Models Search will take place on dual islands on Saturday, January 25th, 2014. In Providenciales, the search will take place at TCI Football Association National Academy on Venetian Road from 10AM to 12NOON. In Grand Turk, the search will be held at the Victoria Public Library on Front Street from 10AM to 11AM.
Potential Contestants must be aged 16 to 24 before May 1st 2014. All females must be 5’6” or taller without heels (bring 4” heels), arrive in a tank top or t-shirt with fitted jeans or shorts and wear minimal to no make-up. Potential male models must be 17 or older at the date of the search, be 5’11” to 6’2”, waist 28” to 34”, and must wear fitted clothing. All are asked arrive with photographs (need not be professional), identification (ID: valid passport or drivers license) and a positive attitude!
For the first time this year, organizers are accepting juniors – aged 10 to 15 boys and girls. All juniors and persons under 18 years must be accompanied by their parents or legal guardians.
Since its exception in 2009, past winners and TCI Top Model alums have gone on to sign modeling contracts, featured on the cover and in magazines such as Times of the Islands, Destination Turks & Caicos, Discover Turks & Caicos, Turks & Caicos Magazine, Profile Magazine, NuWoman Magazine, Nirvana magazine, Trinidad Express and Flaunt Tobago to name but a few. They have also done ad for Digicel TCI, L’ete, Caicos Express, Kier’s Hairapy, Saint George Fashion House, Tremm Jocale, 3MJayEssence, Double R Media, CayLight and GranHawk. Models have also rocked the runway, most recently during New York Fashion Week Spring Summer 2014 presentations for some of the worlds emerging and established fashion designers. What is more, Uptown Magazine, an American publication will feature Washanda Registre and Samantha Etienne, TCI Top Models 2012 & 2013 respectively – on the cover and in an editorial spread of their 2014 Weddings & Travel issue, which was shot at the Regent Palms Resort on Providenciales.
Courtney Robinson, Director of Production for the TCI Top Model Contest & Fashion Extravaganza, said: “Organisers of the TCI Top Model Contest strive each year to outdo itself with a great production for our audience and partners. In so doing, we work tirelessly to provide those that are participating, whether contestants, models or designers - the necessary information, training, tools, grooming and guidance they’ll need in the business that is fashion. It is with hope that they take on board all that is learned and make their Turks & Caicos fashion dreams a world realty.”
Rescue operation as boat with Haitian migrants capsizes
A rescue operation is under way in the Bahamas, after a 12m (40ft) vessel carrying Haitian migrants ran aground and capsized.
The US Coast Guard said about 100 migrants were clinging to the hull of the overturned boat.
Up to 30 people may have died in the accident which occurred on Monday near Staniel Cay, a Bahamas official said.
Haitian migrants often head to the Bahamas or pass by on their way to the United States.
The US Coast Guard and the Royal Bahamian Defense Force were at the scene.
A spokesman in Miami said the rescuers had dropped life rafts, food and supplies to the survivors.
Thirteen Haitians survivors were rescued by helicopter, he said.
It is not clear whether the migrants were heading to the Bahamans or if their final destination was the US.
Fatal accidents at sea involving migrants from Haiti, the Western hemisphere's poorest nation, are not uncommon.
In December 2011, 38 migrants were found dead after their boat sank just off the eastern tip of Cuba.
And in 2009, US Coast Guard officials called off their search for about 70 migrants from Haiti whose boat capsized off the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Honduras election: Hernandez has 'irreversible' lead
Honduras' conservative governing party candidate has an unbeatable lead in the country's presidential vote, according to election officials.
They say Juan Orlando Hernandez is five points points clear of his main rival, and that with a third of votes yet to be counted his victory is irreversible.
Second-placed Xiomara Castro has alleged massive electoral fraud and refused to accept the results.
Both presidential candidates claim they have won Sunday's election.
Millions of Hondurans turned out to vote amid high security.
Ms Castro, Libre party candidate and the wife of ousted ex-president Manuel Zelaya, had hoped to become the first female president of Honduras.
Mr Zelaya, who was deposed in a coup in 2009, told reporters there were "serious inconsistencies" in up to 400,000 ballots.
"We are going to defend our triumph at the ballot box and if necessary will take to the streets," he said.
"Until proven otherwise, we hold triumph in our hands."
Hundreds of Castro supporters have already protested in front of the election tribunal providing updates on the results.
Cuba suspends consular services in US over lack of banking
Cuba says it has been forced to close most of its consular services in the United States because no bank will take its business.
The Cuban Interests Section in Washington said the M&T Bank had informed it in July that it would no longer provide banking services to foreign missions.
Havana's diplomatic mission said it had been impossible to find a replacement.
It blamed long-standing US economic sanctions against the communist island.
Officials at M&T Bank did not comment.
Washington and Havana broke diplomatic relations in 1961, but since 1977, they have had "interests sections" in each other's capitals under the legal protection of Switzerland.
Havana also has a Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
The Cuban Interests Section said in a statement: "Despite the numerous efforts made with the State Department and several banks, it has been impossible to find a US or international bank with branches in the US to operate the bank accounts of the Cuban diplomatic missions."
It blamed restrictions derived from the US blockade of Cuba - first imposed by the Kennedy administration in the early 1960s.
Until further notice, said the statement, consular services including passport and visa processing would "only be provided in humanitarian cases and other of specific nature".
It also said it regretted the effects the move may have on family visits, academic, cultural and other exchanges between Cuba and the US.
Tourism sources in the United States say about 350,000 Cuban Americans visit the island every year. They all need an entry visa.
And Cubans without US citizenship must keep their Cuban passports up to date through the interests section in Washington, paying a renewal fee every two years of $200 (£124).
Latvian government falls over Riga supermarket disaster
Latvia's PM Valdis Dombrovskis has announced his resignation, and thereby the fall of his government, over the deadly collapse of a Riga supermarket.
He made the announcement at a meeting with President Andris Berzins.
"Considering the tragedy and all related circumstances... a new government is needed that has the clear support of parliament," Mr Dombrovskis told reporters.
At least 54 people died when the Maxima supermarket collapsed last Thursday.
President Berzins earlier described the disaster as "murder" and called for foreign experts to investigate what had happened.
Mr Dombrovskis met the president for an hour and a half on Wednesday, the Baltic news agency Delfi reports.
President Berzins was quoted by the agency as saying: "I call on all who look to the future to assess their responsibility and act accordingly."
The prime minister's spokesman told Agence France-Presse news agency that "the government takes political responsibility for the tragedy".
Mr Berzins is now considering appointing a new government. Elections are not scheduled until October next year.
The collapse was the biggest loss of life since Latvia became independent from the USSR in 1991.
Police have opened a criminal investigation into the cause of the disaster.
Structural experts have suggested that the supermarket building itself may have been badly designed and so not able to support a garden that was being built on the roof.
After analysing photos, videos and eyewitness reports, one structural engineer suggested there had been numerous design flaws in the roof's supporting beams - including not enough bolts.
Substandard construction materials and corruption are other possible lines of inquiry.
Protests Continue in Ukraine Against Refusal to Sign EU Deal
Protesters gathered Wednesday outside a government building in Kyiv objecting to Ukraine's decision not to sign a landmark trade deal with the EU in favor of increasing ties with Russia.
Three opposition leaders participating in the protests were unsuccessful at gaining entry to the Cabinet of Ministers building while a meeting was taking place.
Vitaly Klitschko, Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Oleg Tyagnibok hoped to meet with the ministers to ask them to reconsider signing the pact with the EU as originally planned.
Riot police, who were positioned outside, looked on.
Ukraine's signing of the trade deal was to take place at a two-day summit that begins Thursday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.
Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych is still planning to attend the summit to discuss the possibility of three-way talks with Russia and the EU on Ukraine's economy.
EU leaders have accused Russia of exerting political and economic pressure on Ukraine to delay the signing of the political and trade agreement. Russia denies doing so.
The decision made last week to end the deal has sparked a massive wave of protests by pro-EU demonstrators.
Tens of thousands of pro-Europe demonstrators swarmed Kyiv last Sunday in one of the largest protests since the Orange Revolution nine years ago.
Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko has started a hunger strike, hoping to force the Ukrainian government to sign the trade agreement.
Part of the EU pact requires legislation freeing the former prime minister. Tymoshenko, one of the leaders of the Orange Revolution, was jailed in 2011 and is serving a seven-year prison term on charges of abuse of office. The EU has called her trial politically motivated.
Karzai Says Will Not Sign US Security Pact Now
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is continuing to say that he will wait until his country's presidential election in April before signing a security pact with the United States.
In an interview with U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty that aired Wednesday, Mr. Karzai said the agreement is in the best interests of his country. But he said the U.S. must first end attacks on Afghan homes and help jumpstart a stalled peace process before he will sign the pact.
He also reiterated the United States must not interfere in Afghanistan's presidential election on April 5.
Mr. Karzai appears to have slightly scaled back his demand that the U.S. guarantee the April election be free and fair following assurances he received during a Monday meeting with U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
In a separate interview with Afghanistan's TOLO television, Rice said Mr. Karzai must sign the agreement by the end of this year, or the U.S. will have no choice but to withdraw all troops after 2014.
Afghanistan's grand assembly, or Loya Jirga, has urged Mr. Karzai to immediately sign the pact, which calls for U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan after 2014 to help the government in its war against the Taliban.
The security agreement would take take effect January 1, 2015. All international combat forces in Afghanistan are set to withdraw by the end of 2014.
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty are both funded by the U.S. government under the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which also oversees the Voice of America.
Rouhani: Iran Will Never Stop Enrichment
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says his country will not stop its nuclear enrichment activity, while pledging to have "constructive interaction" with the international community.
Mr. Rouhani said in an interview on IRIB television that Iran has a right to enrichment and will never stop.
"I want to assure our people that the principles set by people, the rights which belong to the people, the framework which the Supreme Leader has set, these will be applied until the end of the negotiations. Meaning that in the country, our nuclear right will be operational with more strength and clarity. Even the right of enrichment which is a part of our nuclear rights will continue. It (enrichment) is being continued today, it will continue tomorrow, and our enrichment will never stop. This is our red line. The enrichment in Iran will never be stopped and this is our red line. Enrichment is our clear line, whether some tend to like it and some not."
He spoke days after Iran agreed to an interim deal with the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany to limit portions of its nuclear program in exchange for targeted relief from international sanctions.
Under the six-month agreement, Iran can continue enriching uranium, but only up to 5 percent, a level that is suitable for generating power. Iran must neutralize its stock of 20-percent-enriched uranium, which can be used for medical research but is also a short step from the level needed to create a nuclear bomb.
Mr. Rouhani said his government's goal is to end the sanctions imposed by the Security Council and individual nations, which want Iran to halt its enrichment because of fears it has been trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has repeatedly insisted that its enrichment is only for peaceful purposes.
The president pledged to work with the nations involved in the interim deal -- the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany -- in order to reach a comprehensive agreement.
The two sides have said that a long-term solution would include "practical limits" and transparency to ensure Iran's nuclear work is peaceful, while giving Iran full sanctions relief.
Syrian Government to Attend Peace Talks
The Syrian government announced on Wednesday that it will participate in peace talks the United Nations has scheduled for January in Geneva.
The foreign ministry said the Syrian government will send a delegation, but stressed that President Bashar al-Assad's government will not be handing over power.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the long-awaited conference earlier this week. Its goal is to forge a mutually agreed-upon transitional government to lead Syria out of a conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions more since March 2011.
Who else will take part in the talks is not yet clear.
Syria's main exiled opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, said Tuesday it has not made a final decision whether to take part, but insisted that Assad should play no role in the country's future.
The commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army said his group will not participate and will not stop its fight to oust Assad when the conference convenes January 22.
The United States, which supports the opposition, together with Syrian ally Russia have been the main proponents behind the talks, working for months to try to arrange the conference as questions about who would participate and under what conditions caused repeated delays.