Elihu Higgs charged with Handling Stolen Goods
After an in-depth investigation by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force (RTCIPF), the charge of Handling Stolen Goods has been laid against 36-year-old Elihu Higgs of Long Bay, Providenciales. The charge is relating to items alleged to have been recovered from a Theft.
Higgs was released on $5,000.00 Police bail for his appearance before the Chief Magistrate Clifton Warner in the Magistrate’s Court Number One in Providenciales this morning (Friday November 15, 2013. Higgs case was later deferred to Friday November 22, 2013 for him to enter a plea to the charge of Handling Stolen Goods.
Angelina Jolie and Steve Martin receive honorary Oscars
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has been honoured for her humanitarian work at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' annual Governors Awards.
The 38-year-old appeared tearful as she accepted the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from director George Lucas.
Steve Martin, Angela Lansbury and the Italian costume designer Pietro Tosi were also recognised in Los Angeles.
"I can't possibly express how excited I am tonight because the Botox is fresh," joked Martin as he accepted his award.
The 68-year-old has never been nominated for an Oscar, despite hosting the Academy Awards ceremony on three occasions.
Lansbury has been similarly passed over by the Academy, despite being nominated three times for the best supporting actress Oscar.
"Ms Lansbury, here is your Academy Award at last," said film historian Robert Osborne as he presented the 88-year-old with her golden statuette.
It was recently announced that a new version of the British-born actress's long-running drama series Murder, She Wrote is in development with Octavia Spencer.
Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton and Mark Wahlberg were among the star-studded audience at Saturday's event, held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hollywood and Highland Center.
The 86-year-old Tosi was unable to attend, however, and had his award collected on his behalf by Italian actress Claudia Cardinale.
The event marked the fifth year that the Academy has presented its honorary awards at a separate ceremony.
Excerpts from the event may be included in the 2014 Oscar telecast, to be hosted by Ellen DeGeneres on 2 March.
Meanwhile, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in California has announced it is to honour the stars of Oscar-tipped movie The Butler.
Forest Whitaker will receive the Kirk Douglas Award for excellence in film on 15 December, while Oprah Winfrey will receive the Montecito Award on 5 February for her "inspirational" performance in the civil rights drama.
Alec Baldwin apologizes for anti-gay slur
Not only did he give very emotional testimony against an accused stalker, but he also raised the ire of GLAAD after using an anti-gay slur he didn't realize was one.
According to TMZ, the "30 Rock" star chased after a photographer outside his Manhattan apartment on Thursday and called the man a "c**ksucking f*g."
"Get away from my wife and the baby with the camera," Baldwin can be heard yelling on video taken of the incident. "What f***ing language you want that in?"
On Friday Baldwin posted a statement on MSNBC's website saying, "I did not intend to hurt or offend anyone with my choice of words, but clearly I have -- and for that I am deeply sorry. Words are important. I understand that, and will choose mine with great care going forward."
The incident occurred hours after Canadian actress Genevieve Sabourin was found guilty of stalking and harassing Baldwin.
"What I said and did this week, as I was trying to protect my family, was offensive and unacceptable. Behavior like this undermines hard-fought rights that I vigorously support."
The statement came after MSNBC announced a two-week suspension for Baldwin's Friday evening show "Up Late With Alec Baldwin."
"I understand 'Up Late' will be taken off the schedule for tonight and next week. I want to apologize to my loyal fans and to my colleagues at MSNBC -- both for my actions and for distracting from their good work. Again, please accept my apology," wrote Baldwin.
Following reports of the incident, the activist organization GLAAD expressed its disappointment on Twitter.
"Mr. Baldwin can't lend his support for equality on paper, while degrading gay people in practice," GLADD tweeted.
The organization later added via Twitter, "It's clearly time Mr. Baldwin listens to the calls from so many LGBT people and allies to end this pattern of anti-gay slurs."
Baldwin responded with his own series of tweets.
"Anti-gay slurs are wrong," he said. "They not only offend, but threaten hard fought tolerance of LGBT rights. I'm grateful to all of the ppl I meet + hear from who recognize that I would never say something to offend my friends in the gay community."
He also said "1-Rich Ferraro from @glaad informs me that c'sucker is an anti-gay epithet. In which case I apologize and will retire it from my vocabulary."
On Friday TMZ featured video of Baldwin asking his male hairdresser if he thought he was a homophobe, to which the stylist jokingly responded, "Yes. Big time."
This is not the first time Baldwin has had a run-in with paparazzi. In August, Baldwin was photographed holding a paparazzi's arms behind his back and pinning him over the hood of a parked car. Both Baldwin and the photographer called 911 but no charges were filed.
In 2012, a New York Daily News photographer accused Baldwin of assault. Baldwin said the photographer bumped him with his camera.
Source-CNN.
TT participating in biggest ‘Africa carnival’
The 9th edition of the annual Abuja International Carnival has received global acclaim, as 15 countries, among which are China, Trinidad and Tobago, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the Gambia, have confirmed their intention to be part of the activities for the biggest carnival in Africa.
Other countries are Sudan, Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Cameroon, Senegal, Kenya, Ghana, Niger and Egypt.
The carnival, which first started in 2004 and has now become an annual fixture, is designed to mark the centenary anniversary of Nigeria. It will be staged in the nation’s capital from November 23 to 26.
Minister of Culture and Tourism, High Chief Edem Duke noted that the participation of Trinidad and Tobago was a special one as Nigeria wanted to model the Abuja Carnival after the one in the Caribbean country, as a tool to maximise the creativity of the Nigerian youth as well as their enterprise.
The High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago, Mr Nyahuma Metuhotep Obika, said that Trinidad’s Minister of Art and Multiculturalism Dr Lincoln Douglas will lead a 23-man delegation to Nigeria on November 22.
The travelling party will also comprise 21 members of the country’s street orchestra. Obika also said that Trinidad and Tobago has undertaken to organise an opera, which is one of the associated activities at the four-day events. The orchestra will perform along dancers from Benin City at the opera as well as at the pre-Carnivals party in Abuja on Friday, November 22.
In addition, the tiny Latin American country, according to the envoy, will present 26 costumes and men and women’s wear to the Ministry of Tourism for the 2014 carnival.
The Ambassador of China was represented at the event by the Cultural Attaché, In Honyue.
The most populated country in the world said it will send its dancers and magicians to Abuja for the events.
Jin Honyue said that the Abuja Carnival is a platform to bolster Chinese-Nigeria cultural exchanges.
Duke, who described Nigeria as a country of great cultural diversity, said that the carnival will define the strength and value of the African continent.
He said the platform will be a potpourri of diverse expression and repertoire of dances for other participating African countries, who might want to surprise Nigeria with what they have in the kitty.
Some of the activities on the card include Art exhibition, boat regatta, durbar, children’s parade, masquerade fiesta, contemporary musical fiesta and traditional hairstyles.
A unique innovation to this year’s activities, which is supported by corporate Nigeria, is the provision of two double-decker buses to be used by the participating countries for sightseeing.
Attorney General to file lawsuit against Jack Warner
Attorney General, Anand Ramlogan, is planning to take action against former minister Jack Warner for statements made during the recent local government election.
According to a pre-action protocol letter, dated November 12 and filed in the Civil Court Office on Friday, Ramlogan is taking issue with the statement made by Warner concerning properties reportedly owned by the Attorney General.
The pre-action protocol letter, filed by attorney-at-law Kelvin Ramkissoon, said Warner’s words, in their “natural and ordinary meaning”, were understood to mean that, among other things the Attorney General owned properties which represent or were purchased with ill-gotten gains derived from the monetary proceeds of corruption and that Ramlogan used his brother’s name to disguise the true identity of the ownership of the alleged properties and avoid disclosure requirements of the Integrity in Public Life Act.
The pre-action protocol letter said Warner’s statement had caused citizens to think unfavourably of the Attorney General.
“This may have the real potential of such citizens failing to vote for, or to vote against, the political party of which he is a member,” the letter stated adding that Warner’s words had “injured and distressed”, causing Ramlogan to “suffer great pain and anguish”.
The letter noted Warner failed to produce any evidence to substantiate his claims, which were designed to gain a political advantage for himself and his party.
Warner has been given seven days to respond and failure to do so will result in legal proceedings being commenced against him.
This is yet another legal challenge against Warner who has already been sued by Glenn Ramadharsingh, Member of Parliament for Caroni Central, Local Government Minister, Dr. Suruj Rambachan, as well as expelled Independent Liberal Party (ILP) councilor Faaiq Mohammed.
Source-CMC
Legal action against UK, France and Netherlands
Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has told Britain’s Observer newspaper he instructed law firm Leigh Day to bring a case against the UK, France and the Netherlands for reparations for slavery. With the backing of the 15 Caricom heads of state, Gonsalves believes the case could be heard in the international court of justice at the Hague.
Historian Prof Bridget Brereton told the T&T Guardian there is a “very compelling moral and legal case for Britain and other countries to pay reparations for slavery and the slave trade,” but noted: “The difficulty will be conceptualising how reparations should be made.” In St Vincent, the reparations committee is seeking the establishment of a development fund as opposed to payments paid to the individual descendents of victims.
“As far as I understand, no one is calling for a single transfer of money,” said Brereton, “they firstly want Britain to make a full apology for the crimes and then a fund for education.
Asked how T&T’s experience of slavery compared to the rest of the Caribbean, Brereton said T&T should be considered separately. Whereas Trinidad had a relatively short experience of plantation slavery—50 years, from 1780 to 1830—Tobago’s was considerably longer, as the island was first established as a Dutch slave colony in the 1600s and recolonised in 1763 by the British.
Whereas the last census in Trinidad showed 38 per cent of the population self-identifying as Afro-Trinidadian, Tobago’s African ancestry is closer to 100 per cent.
Brereton put the case for reparations in human terms as well as fiscal. “In addition to bringing people to the Caribbean against their will, they were enslaved as lifelong slaves and hereditary slaves—the children of an enslaved mother inherited her condition, and of course there were no wages,” she said.
Speaking about the lasting effect, she referred to the “huge legacy of damaging race myths and stereotypes, ideas about colour, shade and blackness that continue to this day. Massive social disadvantages that descendants of slave had to face in the 19th and 20th century.” On the economies of the Caribbean she said: “Slavery promoted skewed economic development. The focus on the export of plantation crops created an imbalanced economy.”
Khafra Kambon of the Emancipation Support Committee told the T&T Guardian the process of setting up a reparations committee in T&T had begun but was not finished. Since the meeting of Caricom heads of state in June, at which it was agreed that all 15 countries would appoint their own reparation committees, there have been two stakeholder meetings involving preliminary discussions, attended by representatives from academic institutions and the government.
Asked what form reparations should come in, Kambon said that was a matter for further down the line. Right now, he says, the “critical thing is that people accept reparations in principle and that we get our society to understand why it is necessary.” Kambon supports the Caricom agreement and, in anticipation of a long court case, he said extensive research was being carried out in all 15 member states into the specific impacts of slavery in each country.
“A lot of people don’t have a proper idea of the loss brought about by slavery,” he said, “not just the the cruelty but the impact on society and human beings. That period reshaped the world in terms of economic power, psychology and in human and material terms. A tremendous amount of research has to be done to make a case. Each country has to research its own experience.”
Asked about the likelihood of securing victory in such a complex historical matter, Kambon pointed to reparations to the Jews of Europe after the Holocaust as a precedent. The creation of the state of Israel was part of the compensation to Jewish Holocaust survivors and victims. Similar states in West Africa, established as homelands for emancipated slaves—Liberia and Sierra Leone—do not, however, receive the funding and global economic partnerships that Israel does.
Asked why Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac had refused to apologise for Britain and France’s roles in the slave trade, Kambon said: “An apology is an admission of guilt which opens the door for payments, so instead they say they deeply regret their state’s involvement but justify it by saying slavery was legal at the time.” He pointed to the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams’s support for reparations, saying: “People have a sense of justice.”
Asked whether the case might damage the relationship between T&T and the UK and Europe, he said: “There is something very wrong in a relationship where someone who has done wrong doesn’t want to correct that wrong. It exposes a flaw in the relationship.
“By international law, as long as the effects of the wrong—a crime against humanity—remain, and those who benefited in the past continue to benefit, then there is a legal case.
Source-TCT Guardian
Calypsonians happy with return to Dimanche Gras in TNT
President of the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation (Tuco) Lutalo Masimba says calypsonians are happy with the return of the Calypso Monarch final to Dimanche Gras. He said that is exactly what they had asked for. The decision was announced by National Carnival Commission (NCC) chairman Allison Demas last week at the launch of Carnival 2014.
Last year, the Calypso Monarch finals took place on the Thursday before Carnival. Masimba said the NCC had been looking for an event for Dimanche Gras night and Tuco had offered the finals of its competition. “We were responding to a vibration from calypsonians and the general calypso-loving public,” he said, adding that the public preferred the final to be staged on Carnival Sunday.
“It is still a Tuco event and it still maintains its integrity,” Masimba said when asked if there would be changes to the format. “Tuco will do what it can in terms of marketing the art form and tents, calypsonians must do their best to market themselves.”
Digicel extends aid to typhoon victims
Habitat for Humanity T&T has announced an extension of Digicel Trinidad Ltd UWI-SPEC text-to-donate programme to send humanitarian assistance to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
Subscribers to the Digicel network can continue to send texts to 11910, to deduct $10 from their accounts in favour of Habitat’s sister organisation in the Philippines. HFH Philippines is leading Habitat for Humanity’s international response.
A major fund-raising campaign has been launched on the Web site: www.habitat.org. Habitat Philippines plans to distribute 50,000 home-cleaning kits and 30,000 home-repair kits in the first stage of the emergency. The organisation will also build 10,000 homes as part of its response plan.
Portland fishermen land rare 900-pound sunfish in Jamaica
After battling a huge fish for more than one and a half hours, two Portland fishermen landed the catch of their life and brought ashore a monster-sized sunfish, which is probably unknown to Jamaica’s waters.
The sunfish, which is being seen by some local fishermen for the first time, is without scales and weighed about 900 pounds. It was caught off the coast of Boston Bay in the parish, shortly after 10 am today.
"It was a difficult fight," said Desmond Phillips, one of the fishermen who helped in capturing the rare catch. "It was difficult bring the fish to the surface, and even more challenging to get the monster (fish) into the boat. When I realized what it was that we had caught, I said to my partner, Michael Grant, who is the boat captain, maybe we should release it. But Grant insisted that we should take it to shore," he continued.
Shocked by the sight of the usual fish, Phillips remarked: "At first I thought it was an alien and I was somewhat frightened.”
Phillips, who has been fishing for the better part of 10 years, said the size of the fish made it almost impossible for he and his partner to put it into the small canoe they were in. But after nearly an hour, they finally got the monstrous fish inside the canoe.
"After a lengthy period, and with water flooding into the boat, we finally brought it into the boat and set sail for Bryans Bay,” he told The Jamaica Gleaner.
And as news spread about what was initially referred to as “alien fish”, dozens of curious persons including motorists and other passers-by, converged along the beach at Bryans Bay to view the large fish, which by then was tied to a tree.
Source-Go-Jamaica
Brazil says Amazon deforestation rose 28% in a year
Brazil says the rate of deforestation in the Amazon increased by 28% between August 2012 and last July, after years of decline.
The government is working to reverse this "crime", Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said.
Activists have blamed the increase in destruction on a controversial reform to Brazil's forest protection law.
Last year Brazil reported the lowest rate of deforestation in the Amazon since monitoring began.
The provisional statistics from August 2012 to last July suggest that the area suffering deforestation was 5,843 sq km (2,255 sq miles), compared to 4,571 sq km (1,765 sq miles) in the previous 12 months.
The 28% rise interrupts a period of declining deforestation which began in 2009. However, it still remains the second lowest annual figure for forest loss in absolute terms.
The worst year on record was 2004, when 27,000 sq km of forest was destroyed.
Monthly data from several scientific institutions had suggested the deforestation rate might be on the rise.