RTC Director – Page 864 – Radio Turks & Caicos

Heat pull away from Raptors, win 22nd straight

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The Miami Heat kept rolling right into March Madness.

Now it's on to Boston to face the rival Celtics - the team who ended the last streak this long.

The Heat equaled the second-longest winning streak in NBA history, pulling away in the fourth quarter Sunday to beat the Toronto Raptors 108-91 for their 22nd consecutive victory.

"It's a special ride right now that we're on,'' LeBron James said. "The best thing about it is we're doing it together.''

James had 22 points and 12 rebounds for his career-best 32nd double-double of the season, Dwyane Wade had 24 points and nine assists, and Ray Allen scored 16 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter for the defending NBA champions.

Chris Bosh finished with 18 points as the Heat matched the 22 consecutive wins recorded by the 2007-08 Houston Rockets. The NBA's longest streak is 33 games, set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers.

Miami will try to move into sole possession of second on Monday when it visits the Celtics - who ended the Rockets' run five years ago and have won 11 in a row at home.

"If there's any group that would be motivated in a circumstance like this, it's that team in green,'' Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "I don't know if the streak will be a big factor but they love playing against us, and vice versa. That's what happens when you meet a team consecutively in the playoffs. There's a history there, and that's what makes these games special.''

The Heat have faced the Celtics twice so far this season. They blew out Boston 120-107 in Miami on opening night, then lost 100-98 in double-overtime on the road on Jan. 27, the day Boston learned that Rajon Rondo needed knee surgery.

"They played better than us for a large part of that game,'' Spoelstra said.

Winners of two straight, the Celtics may be without veteran forward Kevin Garnett on Monday. The 15-time All-Star sat out Saturday's victory over Charlotte with a strained left thigh and is day-to-day.

"We have to treat them with the respect they deserve,'' Spoelstra said. "Regardless of who plays for them, that's a team that will come out with an incredible amount of urgency.''

Wade called the looming matchup with Boston "a great challenge.''

"I think we'll be ready for it,'' he said. "We've got to get our rest and we've got to know we're going to have a dog fight on our hands.''

Heat forward Shane Battier, who played on the 2007-08 Rockets, inspired his teammates with a speech after their Feb. 3 win over Toronto. The 11-year veteran spoke again after Sunday's victory, an address that Spoelstra called "passionate'' and "pure.''

"Coach Riley gets paid close to six figures for his speeches,'' Spoelstra said, referring to former Heat coach and current team president Pat Riley. "I don't know what Shane should charge now, but he should get something.''

Miami blew it open Sunday behind Allen's 3-point shooting after Toronto tied it at 77 early in the fourth quarter.

"Those (3-pointers) are what we feared for so many years (when Allen was with Boston),'' Spoelstra said. "He can turn a game around just like that.''

Toronto is the third team with multiple losses to the Heat during the streak. Miami has beaten Philadelphia three times and Atlanta twice.

by RTC Director

LA Lakers beat Kings without Kobe, 113-102

Antawn Jamison scored 27 points, Metta World Peace added 22, and the Los Angeles Lakers won without Kobe Bryant, beating the Sacramento Kings 113-102 Sunday night for their sixth victory in seven games.

Bryant missed his first game of the season to rest his sprained left ankle, making a game-time decision to rest his aching joint. Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni used just seven players, but Jamison and fellow reserve Steve Blake took charge in the second half as the Lakers kept a one-game lead over Utah for eighth place in the Western Conference.

Isaiah Thomas scored 26 points and Patrick Patterson had 22 for the Kings, who have lost 12 of 13 on the road.

The Kings played without DeMarcus Cousins, who has a bruised left quadriceps.

by RTC Director

Death toll from fireworks explosion in Mexico rises to 16

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Two more people succumbed to injuries suffered when a truck carrying fireworks to a religious procession exploded in Mexico, raising the overall death toll to 16, a state agency reported, according to the government news agency.

The incident occurred Friday in the central Mexican city of Nativitas. One of the fireworks went astray and landed in a truck carrying "a significant amount" of other fireworks, triggering the deadly explosion, state-run Notimex reported Saturday.

Those injured were taken to several area hospitals, Mateo Morales Baez told Notimex.

La Coordinacion General de Informacion y Relaciones Publicas del Gobierno de Tlaxcala, the communications arm of Tlaxcala state, reported Saturday evening that two more people hurt in the explosion had died over the last few hours.

More than 150 people suffered injuries, according to Notimex.

by RTC Director

Regional Donors and Organizations Discuss CCRIF’s New Excess Rainfall Product

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The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) hosted a strategic donor meeting at the offices of the CDB in Barbados on March 6, 2013 to discuss ways to support CCRIF’s new excess rainfall product and to coordinate with donors’ disaster risk management initiatives in the region.

In his opening remarks, CDB President Dr. Warren Smith indicated that the CDB was pleased to facilitate this discussion which will increase cooperation among CCRIF, donors and regional organisations “in enhancing the disaster risk management capacity of the region as a whole and coordinating our efforts in keeping with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.”

The meeting brought together international development partners including the UK Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Inter-American Bank, and the European Union among others.

Regional institutions represented included the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC). Other participants included His Excellency Ambassador Appio Claudio Muniz Acquarone of Brazil and Mr Yu Bu, Alternate Director for China to CDB and First Secretary of the People’s Republic of China to Barbados.

Donors have played a key role in helping CCRIF to meet its key objective of providing a cost-effective way to pre-finance short-term liquidity after a catastrophic event, allowing governments to begin recovery efforts immediately. A good example of this was the US$ 8 million payout made to Haiti 14 days after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

This payout – which came before any other direct donor support – enabled the Haitian public sector and emergency services to continue to function in the weeks and months after the earthquake. By contributing towards the capitalisation of CCRIF, donors indirectly helped the Facility to reduce its expenditures on reinsurance, increase the financial security of the Facility, and decrease the premium charged to member countries.

One of the main items of discussion was CCRIF’s new coverage option, the CCRIF/Swiss Re Excess Rainfall product, which is now being made available to all CARICOM countries.

Discussions focused on potential donor support to enable Caribbean countries at risk from extreme rainfall to take advantage of this innovative product. The excess rainfall product will complement the Facility’s tropical cyclone coverage which is based on wind and storm surge losses.

The excess rainfall product was developed in direct response to interest expressed by many CCRIF participating countries and stakeholder partners in enhancing existing options to include coverage against damage produced by heavy rain and its triggering of floods and landslides. Donors were impressed with the product’s potential to help all countries in the Caribbean region – including those which are not at significant risk from tropical cyclones, such as Guyana and Suriname.

A number of commitments came out of the meeting:

· Donors committed to examine how they could support the roll-out of the CCRIF/Swiss Re Excess Rainfall product.

· CCRIF agreed to assist donors with helping governments to better understand the role of parametric insurance in disaster risk management and the importance of engaging in wider disaster risk reduction activities beyond insurance.

· The Inter-American Development Bank will seek to enhance its partnership with CCRIF in developing a technical cooperation initiative that would be designed to help countries better understand and assess their risks from natural disasters and help them find ways to incorporate these risks into national decision making and planning.

· CCRIF committed to organise a regional meeting of key stakeholders and donors on the concept and implementation of a ‘Country Risk Officer’ initiative – for specially designated government officers who would act as a central point of contact for coordinated disaster risk management in their country.

CCRIF’s recently appointed CEO, Mr Isaac Anthony, was pleased with the results of the meeting and stated that it “provided an opportunity to create a mechanism for inter-organisation information sharing and collaboration that can be used to deal with a variety of development issues that face the Caribbean. CCRIF – and its current and future member countries – will certainly benefit from this cooperative approach.”

by RTC Director

China to provide billions for Latin America and the Caribbean Co-financing Fund

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the People's Bank of China (PBC) approved the China Co-financing Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean to support public and private sector projects that promote sustainable economic growth in the region.
The Fund, the first of its kind established by China and a multilateral development bank, will provide capital to complement the IDB’s own resources for projects seeking to alleviate poverty and reduce inequality, boost private sector investment, improve competitiveness and social welfare, and support programs to mitigate the impacts of climate change and promote greater gender equality.

In partnering with the IDB, China hopes to channel its resources toward development finance projects that require additional financing to make them viable.

The proposed $2 billion contribution by China will be used to co-finance a total of up to $500 million of IDB public sector loans and up to $1.5 billion for loans made by the Bank to private sector entities. Co-financing Fund resources will be used to complement IDB loans, subject to pre-established limits.

The funds from China will be available for the next three years for public sector projects and the next six years for non-sovereign guaranteed operations.

by RTC Director

Hugo Chavez coffin arrives at Caracas museum

The body of Hugo Chavez has been laid to rest at a military museum in Venezuela's capital, Caracas.

Thousands of people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the hearse as it carried his coffin from the military academy where it laid in state for 10 days.

Many of his supporters were wearing red, the colour of Mr Chavez's political movement.

Mr Chavez, who led Venezuela for 14 years, died of cancer last week.

His coffin was received by a military guard of honour.

Religious and political ceremonies were held at the military museum, attended by Mr Chavez's chosen successor Nicolas Maduro.Mr Maduro asked the National Assembly to reform the constitution to allow Mr Chavez's body to be buried in the National Pantheon, together with the most important leaders in Venezuela's history.

Mr Chavez, for his part, had said he wanted to be buried in his hometown in Barinas.

After Friday's ceremonies, the country's Information Minister, Ernesto Villegas, said the government had dropped plans to embalm Mr Chavez for permanent display.

He said the decision was made at the advice of Russian experts who said Mr Chavez's body had not been properly prepared. The embalming process would take seven to eight months.

Earlier in the day, political and military authorities joined Mr Chavez's relatives for a ceremony at the military academy where his remains lay in state for 10 days.

"Thanks, comandante, for giving us back our fatherland," said one of Mr Chavez's daughters, Maria Gabriela, in an emotional eulogy.

"You have left us unexpectedly and have left an enormous vacuum in Venezuela," said one of Mr Chavez's former teachers at the military academy, Major General Jacinto Perez Arcay.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have visited the coffin of their former leader.

Shortly after his death was announced on 5 March, the government declared seven days of mourning, which was later extended to 10 days.

by RTC Director

Tourists shot in Bridgetown

Police reported the shooting of two British tourists in the City around 2 p.m. The names have not been released but police reports state a man, in his 70’s, was shot in his left side while a woman, in her 50’s, received a gunshot injury to her right thigh. The shooting occurred in Hincks Street.

The pair was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where they were being treated.

by RTC Director

Cyprus parliament to hold bailout crisis session

Cyprus' parliament is due to hold an emergency session to discuss a big bailout, which has angered the public.

It is by no means certain that the deal, reluctantly endorsed by the president, will get enough support to pass in parliament.

The 10bn-euro ($13bn; £8.6bn) bailout agreed by the EU and IMF demands that all bank customers pay a one-off levy.

This led to mass cash withdrawals, and President Nicos Anastasiades later said he wanted to ease the bailout terms.

The Cypriot president's Democratic Rally party - which has 20 seats in the 56-member assembly - needs support from other factions to ratify the bailout.

A spokesman for one of its coalition partners, the Democratic Party, told BBC News they wanted assurances that the deal would resolve the problems facing Cyprus before voting in favour.

Opposition leader George Lillikas, an independent, said the president had "betrayed the people's vote".

If the deal is defeated, state media say banks could be closed on Tuesday so as to avoid mass withdrawals.

Ahead of the parliamentary vote, President Anastasiades said he was trying to amend the levy demand.

"I fully share the unhappiness caused by a difficult and painful decision," he said on TV on Sunday.

"That's why I continue to fight with the eurogroup to amend their decisions in the coming hours to limit the impact on small depositors."

However, the president warned that Cyprus had had to choose between stabilising its finances or the eventual collapse of its financial system and exit from the eurozone.He also said it was the worst crisis since Turkey invaded in 1974.

'Good step'

Under the bailout's terms, people in Cyprus with less than 100,000 euros in their accounts would have to pay a one-time tax of 6.75%. Those with sums over that threshold would pay 9.9% in tax.

Depositors will be compensated with the equivalent amount in shares in their banks, and Mr Anastasiades promised that those who kept deposits in Cypriot banks for the next two years would be given bonds linked to revenues from natural gas.

Cyprus announced the discovery of a field containing between 5 and 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas under the Mediterranean Sea in 2011 but Turkey disputes its drilling rights.

It is believed that eurozone leaders, particularly in Germany, insisted on the levy because of the large amount of Russian capital kept in Cypriot banks, amid fears of money-laundering.

The speaker of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, later argued in a newspaper interview that there should be an exemption from the levy for savers, for example, who had less than 25,000 euros in their accounts.

"The solution must be socially acceptable," Mr Schulz, who belongs to Germany's opposition Social Democrats, told Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the levy, saying: "I think it's a good step which will certainly make it easier for us to approve the help for Cyprus."

It is now clear that negotiators of the bailout in Brussels drastically underestimated the reaction in Cyprus, says the BBC's Mark Lowen.

A tiny eurozone economy feels it is being blackmailed by the most powerful, and the growing resentment will do nothing to foster European solidarity, our correspondent adds.

If the levy goes ahead, it will affect many non-Cypriots with bank accounts, including UK expatriates.

However, depositors in the overseas arms of Cypriot banks will not be hit. Bank of Cyprus UK and Laiki Bank UK both confirmed on their websites that there would be no impact.

Chancellor George Osborne said the UK would compensate any government employees and military personnel whose bank accounts were affected.

The levy itself will not take effect until Tuesday, following a public holiday, but action was taken to control electronic money transfers over the weekend.

Source-BBC

by RTC Director

Canada prisoners in daring helicopter escape

Two inmates have made a daring escape from a prison in Canada by climbing up a rope into a hovering helicopter.

Officials at the St-Jerome prison, near Montreal, said the inmates fled at about 14:20 (18:20 GMT) on Sunday, triggering a massive manhunt.

Police later said they arrested one of the prisoners and two other men. They also surrounded the area whey they believe the second escapee is hiding.

The helicopter was also found, and the pilot is now being questioned.

The two inmates were identified as Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau, 36, and Danny Provencal, 33.

Both were reportedly injured during the escape from the prison, about 60km (40 miles) north-west of Montreal.

Before Hudon-Barbeau was re-arrested, he reportedly called local media outlets saying he was "ready to die".

Police said much of the action took place in the town of Chertsey.

They added that the area were the second suspect was thought to be hiding was now surrounded.

"We're hot on the trail of the one (inmate) that's missing," police spokesman Sgt Benoit Richard was quoted as saying by The Globe and Mail newspaper.

The helicopter - which was found some 85km away from the prison - was reportedly hijacked from a tour company.

The 480-prisoner St-Jerome facility was a scene of a small riot last month. Police had to use pepper spray to quell inmates.

by RTC Director

Famed French Criminal Lawyer Metzner Found Dead

French lawyer Olivier Metzner, well-known for defending such high-profile clients as former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and ex-prime minister Dominique de Villepin, was found dead Sunday.

Police say his body was floating near his private island off Brittany. They say a suicide note was found in his home. An autopsy is being carried out to determine the exact cause of death. He was 63 years old.

Metzner began his legal career by successfully defending petty thieves, and soon became an expert on getting his clients freed on technicalities.

He successfully fought to absolve Continental Airlines of manslaughter charges in a deadly 2000 Concorde crash.

But he failed to win acquittal for former Panamanian dictator Noriega on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

by RTC Director