Mr. Sonjay Tolani charged in the shooting incident
The Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force has completed their investigation and careful consideration of all the evidence by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
RTC News confirmed this afternoon that charges have been laid against Mr. Sonjay Tolani in the shooting incident which took place on Sunday March 31, 2013 in the Grace Bay Area.
Mr. Tolani appeared before the Chief Magistrate on Wednesday April 17, 2013 on charges of discharging a firearm with intent to cause fear and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Tolani was brought before the Supreme Court with respect to bail and was released on $15,000 bond with surety and conditions. His matter is scheduled for Sufficiency Hearing before the Chief Justice on June 7, 2013.
Our newsroom understands that the evidence did not support the laying of any criminal charges as it relates to the Honourable Minister of Border Control & labour Donahue Gardiner.
Police tours schools
Members of the Royal Turks & Caicos Islands Police Force paid a visit to the HJ Robinson High School as they continued their Public Relations campaign.
Special Constable, Audley Astwood & Constable Kevin Clarke from the Police Force met with teachers, parents, students and also members of the media.
In speaking with Special Constable Astwood, he confirmed to RTC News that this campaign will extend throughout 2013 and will be done annually and as needed.
Constable Clarke stated that some principals have expressed the need for multiple visits and we have already extended that courtesy to a number of schools.
This Police Public Relations campaign was designed to enhance community safety and crime prevention by: preventing or reducing crime and anti-social behavior, improving community safety and security, and reducing the fear of crime.
Both Constables after meeting with HJ. Robinson High School today will be speaking to the teachers and children of Ona Glinton and the Eliza Simons Primary school about police matters including their cadet program and recruitment to join to join the police Force.
Deputy Preimier & Minister of Youth speaks about National Consultation
The Minister of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture the Hon. Akierra Missick today sent RTC News a message on the upcoming national consultation.
The Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands is guided by the principle that our highest priority is the educational development of our people. It is in this context that we have begun a review of several key areas in our education system.
We want to ensure that we have a system that meets the developmental needs in an evolving, multicultural society such as ours. We want to ensure that all levels of the system are interconnected and are working toward the same goal as our children progress seamlessly through the system from Early Childhood to Primary to Secondary and on to College.
We as a government have stated our commitment to ensuring that our educational system develops into a world-class system that will produce world-class citizens. This is a major priority.
The Ministry of Education has the critical task of overseeing the a system that is responsible for shaping the lives of our citizenry, driven by the philosophy that our education system should provide opportunities for individuals to learn how: to live together, to be, to know, to do, to think, to communicate, and to change.
We are therefore inviting all stakeholders in education and in the community in general to participate in our National Consultation on Education.
You are being encouraged to make your input in several ways:
1. Attend the National Consultation discussions to be held on Grand Turk, South Caicos, North Caicos, and Providenciales during the month of April 2013. (Definite dates will be sent later).
2. Send an email or comment to educonsult@gov.tc . The emailed files should be no more than 5 megabytes and in Microsoft Word or Power Point.
3. Send your comments and suggestions in a letter addressed to:
National Consultation on Education
Ministry of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture Government Square, Pond Street Grand Turk Turks & Caicos Islands
4. Visit the website (http://tcig.net/educonsult/home) and make your contribution on any or all of the areas by clicking on the Citizen Feedback link.
5. Complete a brief survey form and drop it in the boxes wherever you may find them.
The Ministry of Education thanks you for the time and attention that you will invest in this consultation, and for encouraging all whom you come into contact with to do the same.
Paraguay holds key presidential election
Voters in Paraguay go to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election seen as key to restoring the country's democratic credentials.
Horacio Cartes, of the conservative Colorado Party, and the centre-right Liberal Party's Efrain Alegre are seen as front-runners among 10 candidates.
The country's standing dipped in the region after last year's disputed impeachment of President Fernando Lugo.
The South American blocs Unasur and Mercosur both suspended Paraguay.
They cited a "rupture in the democratic order".
The impeachment followed a land eviction at a farm last June that led to the deaths of 11 farmers and six police officers.
The incident sparked a nationwide outcry and the opposition declared President Lugo responsible.
Mr Lugo, a left-wing former Roman Catholic bishop, was impeached and replaced by Vice-President Federico Franco of the Liberal Party in less than 48 hours.
When a near unanimous vote blamed the president's handling of the crisis for the deaths, neighbouring countries recalled their diplomats citing a "congressional coup".
'Vital problem'
Polls will be open from 07:00 local time (11:00 GMT) until 16:00. Preliminary results are expected five hours after voting ends.
The country will choose a new president and vice-president, 45 senators, 80 members of the lower house and 17 state governors.
The poll will be closely monitored by international organisations.
More than 500 observers from Unasur, the European Union and the Organisation of American States will be present, electoral authorities say.
"The world will see that Paraguay is a country that elects its authorities democratically, solving a vital problem for the people, that is, re-joining the international bodies," Uruguayan MP Daniel Pena, who will be acting as an observer for the Mercosur parliament, told Paraguay's IP news agency.
Just over 3.5 million of the nation's 6.6 million citizens are eligible for the mandatory vote.
The electoral tribunal's president, Alberto Ramirez Zambonini, appealed for participation in Sunday's election.
"For five years, others take decisions for us. This is the chance citizens have to choose [who they are]," Mr Ramirez told journalists.
Mr Cartes' Colorado party governed Paraguay for 35 years, acting as the main allies of the military ruler Gen Alfredo Stroessner from 1954 to 1989.
Mario Ferreiro, a popular TV journalist, and the left leaning doctor Anibal Carrillo Iramain, are other key candidates.
Landlocked Paraguay is one of South America's poorest countries, with an economy highly dependent on agricultural exports. It has long-standing corruption problems.
Its GDP shrank 0.5% last year, although forecasts predict double-digit growth for 2013.
Venezuela election official plays down vote audit
The electoral commission in Venezuela has said an audit of last Sunday's disputed presidential vote will not affect Nicolas Maduro's victory.
Mr Maduro's main challenger, Henrique Capriles, agreed to the electronic audit after withdrawing his demand for a manual recount.
Officially, he lost by a margin of 1.8 percentage points.
The electoral commission's deputy head, Sandra Oblitas, said that the result was "irreversible".
The audit, which was agreed just before Mr Maduro was sworn in as president, is expected to take about a month.
Mr Capriles believes there were voting irregularities.
The new president has vowed to continue the social policies of his leftist predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.
Ms Oblitas, deputy head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), spoke to reporters at the commission's headquarters in the capital, Caracas.
"We will not let something that aims to verify whether the system worked be turned into a sort of public impeachment that tries to question the results," she said.
"As always, when the CNE announces results to the country, it is because they are irreversible."
Any challenge to the result must be decided by Venezuela's supreme court, she said.
The official count indicates Mr Maduro won 50.8% of votes to Mr Capriles's 49.0%.
Mr Capriles said he believed the crucial votes that had cost him the presidency were among the unaudited 46% of the vote.
Carlos Ocariz, national director of Mr Capriles' team, said the audit would be a "long process... and our people have to stay alert".
"We want to know the truth," he said. "Once we see what happened last Sunday, a new phase can begin."
In his speech on Friday, Mr Maduro promised a "revolution within the revolution" and compared Mr Capriles to the man installed as president of Venezuela during a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez, Pedro Carmona.
"I'm willing to even talk to the devil, even to the new Carmona, if necessary to stop his hatred against me, against the people, to stop his intolerance," he said.
The former bus driver said: "I'm the first chavista president and the first workman president."
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Cuban leader Raul Castro were among the first heads of state to congratulate Mr Maduro on his win.
The governments of Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Argentina, among others, have also voiced their backing for Mr Maduro's victory.
But the US has so far refused to recognise Mr Maduro's win.
The leftist President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, said Washington had no right to question Mr Maduro's victory because George W Bush won the White House by a similarly narrow margin in 2004.
"This is clearly meddling..." he said. "We won't permit that Bolivia or Latin America be treated as the US government's backyard."
Argentines hold mass rallies against government
Tens of thousands of people in Argentina are taking part in protests against the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
Huge crowds marched through the capital Buenos Aires chanting slogans, banging pots and pans and waving banners.
The protest was sparked by a government proposal to reform the judiciary but people also showed their discontent over high inflation and crime.
Similar protests have also been held in other cities across Argentina.Many protesters told the BBC they were angry at a proposed government bill that would allow voters to choose the magistrates who appoint and remove judges.
The Argentine opposition has criticised the move saying it would politicise the judiciary.
Opposition activists used social networks to mobilise the march, which was the biggest since November.
There has been no comment so far from the Argentine government.
President Fernandez left the country on Thursday to attend a summit in Peru.
However, correspondents say there will be concern in government quarters that the opposition might take strength from this protest with crucial legislative elections later this year.
"I came to see if the Kirchners will leave... and that peace returns so that we can be a united country once again," said Lorenzo Velazquez, a 51-year-old food worker in Buenos Aires.
He carried a sign saying "2015 Sin Cristina" referring to the year when President Fernandez's current term will end.
Ms Fernandez's late husband, Nestor Kirchner, was Argentina's president from 2003 to 2007. His wife succeeded him and won re-election in 2011.
Haiti PM has high hopes for Canada aid
Haiti’s Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe has expressed optimism that the Canadian Government will review its decision halt new aid projects in his country.
Lamothe comments came after he held talks with Canada’s International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino yesterday.
In January, Fantino announced that Canada would discontinue new aid projects in Haiti while it conducted a review of the programme.
The announcement came two months after Fantino visited the earthquake-ravaged country and revealed that he was disappointed with the lack of progress.
However, as he emerged from yesterday’s meeting, which was also attended by representatives of various international donor agencies, Prime Minister Lamothe says no formal agreements have been reached.
However, he says he remains hopeful that some decisions will be taken at next month’s donor-coordination conference in Port-au-Prince.
Guatemala judge suspends trial of former military ruler
A judge in Guatemala has suspended the trial of former military ruler Efrain Rios Montt.
He was being tried for a counter-insurgency plan that killed more than 1,700 members of the Ixil indigenous group in 1982.
Judge Carol Patricia Flores said she was following a directive from the country's Supreme Court.
Mr Rios Montt, who ruled Guatemala between 1982-1983, denies the charges.
Judge Flores ordered the legal process to be set back to November 2011, before the retired general was charged with war crimes.
"I am not doing this because I want to, but because it has been ordered by the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court," she said.
The 86-year-old has been on trial since March.
He faces charges of crimes against humanity in connection with the killing of 1,771 indigenous Mayans during his 17-month rule in 1982-1983.
Prosecutors said Gen Rios Montt wanted to wipe out the indigenous group, which he suspected of supporting rebel fighters.
The proceedings were expected to last months, with hundreds of witnesses, since the prosecution admits there is no evidence directly linking Mr Rios Montt to the killings.
The former general abandoned politics in 2012, after serving in Congress for a number of years.
He has been under house arrest since his immunity from prosecution was lifted at the end of his term.
Mr Rios Montt is also facing charges over the forced displacement of 29,000 indigenous Guatemalans as part of what human rights groups have called his "scorched earth" policy.
An estimated 200,000 people were killed or went missing during Guatemala's 36-year civil conflict, which ended in 1996.
Mr Rios Montt's 17 months in power are believed to have been one of the most violent periods of the war.
Source-BBC
Argentine football fans assault players after cup exit
Dozens of fans of the Argentine football club Huracan have stormed the club's changing rooms after a training session and assaulted some players.
They also stole players' belongings and damaged their cars outside the stadium in Buenos Aires.
The masked fans carried out the attack after a disappointing result.
Second division Huracan had been knocked out of Copa Argentina by first division opponents Godoy Cruz on penalties on Wednesday.
"We were in the showers after Thursday's training session when the disguised fans stormed the rooms and threatened the players," said coach Jose Maria Llop.
He said some of the players had been beaten.
"When we left the stadium, we found out eight cars had been damaged," he added.
The club's president, Alejandro Nadur, said the fans had come in two buses and entered the stadium.
"What they did would not have been justified, even if we had lost 15-0 to Godoy Cruz," he said.
Extra police on duty for London Marathon
Hundreds of extra police officers will be on duty at the London Marathon later in a bid to reassure runners and spectators after the Boston bombings.
More than 35,000 runners are due to take part in the race, which starts in Blackheath, south-east London.
A 30-second silence will be held at the start line for the three people killed and more than 170 others injured by the bombs at the Boston Marathon on Monday.
The Met Police says 40% more officers will be on duty than last year.
The force said that it had reviewed security plans after the Boston attacks and that the extra officers would be used for "for reassurance patrols".
The marathon route, which is lined by hundreds of thousands of spectators each year, finishes near Buckingham Palace, passing some of London's most recognisable landmarks, including Tower Bridge and Big Ben.
Ch Supt Julia Pendry, who has headed marathon security for five years, has said this year's police operation is "about making sure that people who come to London on Sunday feel safe when they are in the city".
She said more search dogs would be deployed and urged marathon spectators to keep their belongings with them to avoid sparking security alerts.
But she added: "There is no link between the Boston Marathon and the London Marathon and there is no change to the threat level at this time to London."
Mr Bitel said the race organisers were happy with how the build-up to the race had gone.
"In terms of our preparations, it's all gone well, obviously there were some additional security issues following Boston, but that seems to be bedding down and the message of reassurance to runners has been very well received," he said.
He said he was looking forward to "a brilliant day" with a "fantastic looking line-up of stars running the race".
Celebrities taking part include singer Katherine Jenkins, BBC newsreader Sian Williams and former Strictly Come Dancing champion Harry Judd, of pop band McFly.
Source-BBC