Latest Crime News
LATEST CRIME NEWS
(1) Around 12:50pm yesterday, Wednesday, November 21st, 2018, police responded to the Carquest Parking Lot located on Industrial Drive, Providenciales, where a male stated that he was approached by two unknown males wearing dark clothes.
The pair of perpetrators pointed a gun at him and demanded his wallet.
They fled the scene in a small gold colored car headed.
Police are appealing to members of the public who may have been in the parking lot when this incident occurred and whom might have witnessed anything pertaining to the incident, tp please contact police on 911 or Crime Stoppers at 1- 800-8477.
(2) Around 12:40am, 911 received a report of a robbery that occurred at Walkin Plaza in Five Cays, Providenciales.
As a result of the report, officers were dispatched to the area where the 56 year old victim in the case informed officers that his vehicle was stolen.
The victim stated that a medium built male dressed in a grey hooded jacket and light colored grey pants with a white shirt covering his face, pointed a gun at him and instructed him to put the money on the seat and vacate the vehicle.
The assailant got away with the vehicle and an undisclosed amount of cash.
The public is advised to be on the lookout for a Light Green Toyota Passo Sedan, registration number 30806.
If sighted, please do not approach, rather, contact the Chalk Sound Police Station at 338-5901 or Crime Stoppers at 1- 800-8477.
Provo Police are investigating stabbing in Blue Hills
Detectives of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force are investigating the report of a stabbing incident that occurred on Friday 17th November 2018 in Blue Hills, Providenciales.
Around 7:20pm, officers visited the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre where the 28 year old male victim was seen and stated that upon his arrival home at 7pm he was approached by a known man who stabbed him multiple times about his body.
Checks were made for the suspect within the districts but up this date he has not been located. The victim is in stable condition and expected to recover.
Police are appealing to members of the public who may have any information in connection to this incident to please contact police on 911 or Crime Stoppers at 1- 800-8477.
St. Lucia opposition seeks resignation of Prime Minister
The main Opposition St Lucia Labour Party (SLP) yesterday filed a motion of no confidence against the Government of Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, calling also for his immediate resignation as the head of the two-and-a-half-year-old Administration.
“In my capacity as leader of the Parliamentary Opposition and leader of the St Lucia Labour Party, I delivered this morning to the clerk of Parliament, for onward submission to the speaker of the House, a copy of a motion of no confidence in the prime minister and minister of finance,” SLP leader, Phillip J Pierre told a news conference ahead of the start of yesterday's sitting of Parliament.
Chastanet led the United Workers Party (UWP) to an 11-6 majority in Parliament following the June 6 General Election. The SLP won the other six seats.
Pierre said that the motion and the anticipated debate will articulate the deep concerns, anxieties, and the feeling of hopelessness among large sections of the St Lucian society about the uncaring and irresponsible manner in which the business of the country is currently managed.
He said that since the appointment and installation of Chastanet as prime minister and minister of finance, economic growth, job creation and external affairs, St Lucia has been governed in a manner that has undermined the constitution, its conventions, and practices.
“We have witnessed a growing abuse of public office, unreasonable and irrational decision-making, unsustainable fiscal deficits, squandering of the State's financial resources, and a debilitating decline in the public trust and confidence in the prime minister's ability to govern the country.”
Pierre said that Prime Minister Chastanet, while acknowledging the need for of a deputy speaker by proposing and supporting the nomination of Sarah Flood-Beaubrun as deputy speaker, caused her to resign at a subsequent meeting of Parliament without explanation, leaving the position vacant.
“This amounts to no more than an abuse and contempt for the intentions of our constitution and the people's Parliament.”
The Opposition leader said that Prime Minister Chastanet has refused to lay in Parliament, for debate, a statement on the use of the funds in the St Lucia National Economic Fund established under the Citizen by Investment Programme, despite pleas from the public and the Opposition.
“The prime minister, by his failure to do so, has acted in breach of the Act, thereby contributing to growing suspicions about the lack of transparency and trust in the Citizenship by Investment Programme.
“The prime minister has recklessly and irresponsibly allowed the economy to descend into unsustainable deficits, and has embarked on the dangerous path of having to fund those deficits by incurring more debt,” Pierre said.
He said the “misguided actions and inactions” of Prime Minister Chastanet, as it relates to the health of the nation, “have plunged the provision of health care services into a deep crisis, created rising uncertainty, undermining morale among health care practitioners, and has now encouraged an exodus of trained nurses from the health care system”.
Pierre further claimed that Prime Minister Chastanet has demonstrated little appreciation for the value of education as a major instrument for the alleviation of poverty and the general well-being of St Lucians.
“He has adopted policies inimical to the interest and benefit of teachers and students, and in so doing he is jeopardising the future of our children and our country's prospects,” Pierre said, noting that while the SLP will not predict the outcome of the motion, there are legislators who are already deciding to vote against the motion before the debate takes place and are setting themselves up as “collaborators with Prime Minister Chastanet's callous and uncaring policies”.
“The Opposition is calling on all House members, in particular, members on the Government side, to place country above self and support the vote of no confidence in the leadership of Allen Chastanet, and that he resigns immediately as prime minister of St Lucia,” Pierre told reporters.
Romaine lettuce not safe to eat, says CDC
Romaine lettuce is unsafe to eat in any form, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday in a food safety alert in response to a new outbreak of illnesses caused by a particularly dangerous type of E. coli bacteria.
The CDC told consumers to throw away any romaine lettuce they may already have purchased. Restaurants should not serve it, stores should not sell it, and people should not buy it, no matter where or when the lettuce was grown. It doesn’t matter if it is chopped, whole head or part of a mix.
The unusually broad warning, issued just two days before Americans sit down for their Thanksgiving dinners, reflects the uncertainties about the origin and extent of the bacterial contamination. The CDC is not claiming that all romaine contains the dangerous bacteria — something the millions of people who have eaten the popular lettuce recently should bear in mind — but investigators don’t know precisely where, when or how the contamination happened.
Thus all romaine is suspect.
The CDC reported that 32 people in 11 states have become sick from eating contaminated romaine. Of those, 13 have been hospitalized, with one patient suffering from a form of kidney failure. The Public Health Agency of Canada has reported that 18 people have been infected with the same strain of E. coli. in Ontario and Quebec.
No deaths have been reported.
“Consumers who have any type of romaine lettuce in their home should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick,” the CDC said in the Food Safety Alert issued Tuesday afternoon.
“This advice includes all types or uses of romaine lettuce, such as whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, and bags and boxes of precut lettuce and salad mixes that contain romaine, including baby romaine, spring mix, and Caesar salad,” the CDC said. “If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine or whether a salad mix contains romaine, do not eat it and throw it away.”
The agency also advised consumers to wash and sanitize drawers and shelves where the lettuce was stored. People usually become sick within three or four days of consuming lettuce contaminated with the E. coli, according to the CDC.
Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said the looming Thanksgiving holiday weighed on the minds of federal officials as they prepared the food alert.
“I think we felt increased pressure to try to communicate earlier and more substantively with the public given that we know people are going to sit down for holiday meals,” Gottlieb said.
But he acknowledged that it is “frustrating and unfortunate” that the alert has to be so broad, covering all romaine lettuce. The federal agencies and the industry are trying to improve traceback techniques to narrow down the sources of outbreaks, he said. “We need to be able to get consumers more precise information about what they shouldn’t be eating, rather than these more general alerts.”
California has the highest number of reported illnesses, with 10, followed by Michigan with seven, New Jersey with three, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York with two each, and the remainder in Connecticut, Maryland, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The Food and Drug Administration issued a statement saying it is making a special effort to test romaine for contamination across the country.
Five people died in the most recent major outbreak from contaminated romaine, which lasted from March to June of this year and led to 210 cases in 36 states. That outbreak was traced to the Yuma, Ariz., growing region, but investigators never conclusively determined the precise source. Gottlieb said the leading suspect is contaminated canal water used by multiple farms.
The latest outbreak does not appear to be connected to the Yuma outbreak. Rather, this outbreak involves a strain of E. coli that has the same genetic fingerprint as the one that caused illnesses late last year in both the United States and Canada. Canada linked its cases to romaine lettuce specifically, although the U.S. investigators said only that origin was in leafy greens. Once again, the precise origin was never determined. That outbreak was declared over in January.
The first illness from this outbreak was reported on Oct. 6. There are typically delays in reporting illnesses linked to E. coli outbreaks, and the CDC said cases from early November onward likely have not been logged by health officials.
U.S. crops rot as storage costs soar
U.S. farmers finishing their harvests are facing a big problem - where to put the mountain of grain they cannot sell to Chinese buyers.
For Louisiana farmer Richard Fontenot and his neighbors, the solution was a costly one: Let the crops rot.
Fontenot plowed under 1,000 of his 1,700 soybean acres this fall, chopping plants into the dirt instead of harvesting more than $300,000 worth of beans.
His beans were damaged by bad weather, made worse by a wet harvest. Normally, he could sell them anyway to a local elevator - giant silos usually run by international grains merchants that store grain.
But this year they aren’t buying as much damaged grain. The elevators are already chock full.
“No one wants them,” Fontenot said in a telephone interview. As he spoke, he drove his tractor across a soybean field, tilling under his crop. “I don’t know what else to do.”
Across the United States, grain farmers are plowing under crops, leaving them to rot or piling them on the ground, in hopes of better prices next year, according to interviews with more than two dozen farmers, academic researchers and farm lenders. It’s one of the results, they say, of a U.S. trade war with China that has sharply hurt export demand and swamped storage facilities with excess grain.
In Louisiana, up to 15 percent of the oilseed crop is being plowed under or is too damaged to market, according to data analyzed by Louisiana State University staff. Crops are going to waste in parts of Mississippi and Arkansas. Grain piles, dusted by snow, sit on the ground in North and South Dakota. And in Illinois and Indiana, some farmers are struggling to protect silo bags stuffed with crops from animals.
U.S. farmers planted 89.1 million acres of soybeans this year, the second most ever, expecting China’s rising demand to give them better returns than other bulk crops.
But Beijing slapped a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans in retaliation for duties imposed by Washington on Chinese exports. That effectively shut down U.S. soybean exports to China, worth around $12 billion last year. China typically takes around 60 percent of U.S. supplies.
The U.S. government rolled out an aid program of around the same size - $12 billion - to help farmers absorb the cost of the trade war. As of mid-November, $837.8 million had been paid out.
Some of that money will pass from farmers to grain merchants such as Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM.N) and Bunge Ltd (BG.N), who are charging farmers more to store crops at elevators where there is limited space. Bunge and ADM did not respond to requests for comment on storage fees.
The storage crunch and higher fees have boosted revenues at grain elevator Andersons [ANDE.O], Chief Executive Officer Pat Bowe said in an interview.
“It’s paying a grain handler to store - it’s the old-fashioned way to make money,” Bowe said.
These are also boom times for John Wierenga, president of grain storage bag retailer Neeralta. Sales of their bags - white tubes up to 300 feet now littering Midwest fields - are up 30 percent from a year ago.
“The demand has been huge,” Wierenga said. “We are sold out.”
Farmers are feeling the pinch. Those in central Illinois could pay up to 40 percent more than in previous years to store crops over the coming weeks, agricultural consultant Matt Bennett estimated.
That amounts to between 3 cents to 6 cents a bushel, Bennett said, a painful expense for a crop that was already expected to deliver little income to farmers.
Storage rates are swinging wildly, depending on the elevator location. Grain dealers at rivers typically charge more than their inland counterparts because they are more dependent on export markets.
At some Midwest river terminals, farmers were paying 60 cents a bushel to store soybeans until the end of the year - more than twice as much as a year ago. Some commercial terminals are charging farmers to just drop off their soybeans.
The trade war has only exacerbated the strain on storage, which has been a persistent problem in recent years due largely to a worldwide oversupply of grains.
Even before this fall’s harvest, around 20 percent of total grain storage available in the U.S. was full with corn, soybeans and wheat from previous harvests, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That was the highest in 12 years for this time of year.
Some grain merchants are also charging additional fees for farmers who deliver less-than-perfect soybeans, said Russell Altom, a soybean farmer and senior vice president of agricultural lending at Relyance Bank in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
“I’ve never seen things this bad,” Altom said. “I know several farmers who hired lawyers, to see if they can sue over the pricing and fees issues.”
Eric Maupin, a farmer in Newbern, Tennessee, said he was facing so-called dockage rates of between 60 cents at $1.20 per bushels at Bunge Elevators in his area - more than three times as high as a year ago.
“Damage can be anything - a split bean, one that’s too small, one that’s too big - whatever,” Maupin said.
Some farmers are pulling farm equipment out of barns to make room for the overflow of grains.
After packing nearly half a million bushels of corn and soybeans in their usual steel bins, Terry Honselman and his family found some additional space in 35-year-old shed on their Casey, Illinois, farm.
Most years, the building protects farm equipment and bags of seed. Now, it is stuffed with 75,000 bushels of corn.
Like others, Honselman is banking on a resolution to the trade war before this spring - when he says he will need the space back for his planting supplies.
Robert De Niro splits from wife of 20 years, Grace Hightower
Robert De Niro and his wife, Grace Hightower, have reportedly called it quits after over 20 years of marriage, according to multiple outlets.
A source close to the former couple told Page Six on Tuesday that De Niro, 75, and Hightower, 63, are "not living together at this time."
“Sometimes things don’t work out the way you hope or want them to,” another insider told People magazine.
A rep for De Niro did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
After dating for almost 10 years, the "Wizard of Lies" star and Hightower tied the knot in 1997. They went on to welcome two children together — son Elliott, 20, and daughter Helen, 6.
This isn't the first time the pair have separated. Per People, two years after their wedding, De Niro filed for divorce, and a custody dispute reportedly ensued over their son. However, things were smoothed over and the divorce was not finalized.
De Niro was previously married to Diahnne Abbott, with whom he shares two children — daughter Drena, 47, and son Raphael, 42. He also has 23-year-old twin sons, Julian and Aaron, with ex Toukie Smith.
Football: Team TCI defeat St Vincent & the Grenadines
It was history in the making when the Turks and Caicos Men’s National Football Team began their journey with the Concacaf Nations League in September.
They suffered a brutal defeat to Cuba in Havana, 11 to NIL.
Then Guyana took the game in October, beating our National team in their own territory, 8 to NIL.
But the tides shifted yesterday when TCI swiped the game, defeating St. Vincent & the Grenadines during a packed match at the TCIFA Academy on Sunday, November 18th in Providenciales.
The game saw TCI scoring the first goal in the third minute, achieved by Billy Forbes.
The second goal came from Billy Forbes again for team TCI in the 42nd minute, making it 2 to NIL for the first half.
At this point, TCI was dominating.
For the second half, both TCI and St. Vincent & the Grenadines made a number of substitutions.
The game saw St. Vincent & the Grenadines scoring their first goal in the 86th minutes and two minutes later, the team scored again, bringing the game to a tie, 2 ALL.
But the fighting spirit of team Turks and Caicos could not be outdone. The team rallied together, valiantly defending and advancing the ball.
In the 89th minute, no. 6 for TCI, Jepthe Francios, scored, giving our guys the lead once more, 3 to 2.
St. Vincent & the Grenadines could not respond despite their efforts, crumbling to team Turks and Caicos who prevailed, securing a historic win for the country.
Story by Allie Capron/RTC News
Several killed as Haitians protest for President's resignation
At least six people were killed and several others injured as opposition demonstrators took to the streets on Sunday demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise and a full investigation into the use of the funds under PetroCaribe, the Venezuela oil initiative to assist countries in the region.
“There is only one option. Jovenel Moïse is a political corpse that must be brought to the cemetery. It's over for him. We cannot do anything with him anymore. He must leave without delay to avoid chaos,” said André Michel, one of the organisers of the protest.
Police have confirmed that the deaths occurred across the French-speaking Caribbean Community country and that several arrests had been made.
The spokesman for the National Police of Haiti (PNH), Michel-Ange Louis Jeune said that six people were killed, five others injured, and 20 arrests were made, but the opposition organisers, speaking at a news conference late Sunday, said that 11 people had been killed, 47 wounded and 75 others arrested.
The Secretary of State for Communication Eddy Jackson Alexis, while congratulating the police and law enforcement authorities for their “professional work”, deplored and condemned the attacks against companies, residences, private property and some diplomatic residences.
President Moise cancelled the planned trip with members of his Cabinet to Cap Haitien on Sunday to commemorate the 215th anniversary of the Battle of Vertières.
The democratic opposition later described the decision of President Moise as “cowardly”, even as leader of the opposition Pitit Dessalines, party, Jean-Charles Moise took credit for the decision of Moise to cancel his trip.
In a pre-recorded message, President Moise said “the symbolism of Vertières calls for dialogue, union and understanding”.
On Sunday, several people took to the streets in the capital as well as in some of the provincial cities, burning tyres, paralysing public transport, waving black and red flags, and demanding answers also to PetroCaribe.
PetroCaribe is an oil alliance of many Caribbean states with Venezuela to purchase oil on conditions of preferential payment. The alliance was launched on the 29th of June 2005 in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. In 2013, PetroCaribe agreed for links with the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), to go beyond oil and promote economic cooperation.
Haitians have been taking to the streets in recent months demanding an inquiry into the use of Petro Caribe funds.
Prior to the demonstrations, the opposition Famni Lavalas party called on the population to remain vigilant amid reports that Nicolas Duvalier, the son of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, is being promoted by Haitian politicians abroad as the new leader of the country.
“The black and red flag of François Duvalier is being promoted. Stop irritating the people, stop putting the people's struggle as a comedy,” Famni Lavalas said in a statement, adding “today the battle is not that of the colour of the flag.
“The battle is to do what our ancestors did on November 18, 1803 — to free the country from these authorities. The battle is to put, no matter the cost, at the head of the country a power of transition, so that we can make a PetroCaribe trial and a national conference to establish in the country a good political system that will allow Haiti to really develop,” the party said.
The party said it was urging supporters not to “fall into the trap of the division on the colour of the flag, and to remain mobilised”.
The opposition has called on supporters to stay home on Monday, but Jackson Alexis, said the population should ignore the advice and that the police would be out in their numbers to ensure their safety.
UK consents to TCI's adoption of Advanced Passenger Information System
A press conference was held at the Hilly Ewing Building yesterday for the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Turks and Caicos Islands Government and the United Kingdom that will allow TCI to join the list of countries that take part in the Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS).
APIS is an automated system established for aviation and maritime operators. It has the capability of enhancing border security over the region by supplying law enforcement officers with data on passengers and crew members prior to arrival and departure from CARICOM member states, United Kingdom, United States and Canada. This system was established by the US Customs Border Protection agency (CBP) in May 2009.
The main contributions of APIS to TCI border management include:
- The ability for law enforcement officials to know whether potential or known offenders or inadmissible persons are travelling to the TCI prior to departure, giving TCI and it's partners adequate time to utilize resources efficiently. This also reduces workload for immigration officers.
- The TCI hopes to use APIS as a decision making tool that Immigration and Customs primarily can employ before a passenger is permitted to board an aircraft in their port of departure.
- Transmission of passenger details well in advance of arrival is also a positive step toward achieving facilitation and compliance goals in the TCI.
With the signing of the MOU, the United Kingdom formally granted consent to the TCI for the sharing of intelligence among member states of the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
An MOU regarding APIS between the Turks and Caicos and the United States was signing back in May of 2017 making TCI the first Caricom Associate Member country amongst the six British Overseas territories to sign on to the Advanced Passenger Information System.
At the 2017 signing ceremony, Deputy Premier and Minister of Border Control, Hon. Sean Astwood remarked that that the signing marked a historic occasion as the Turks and Caicos Islands embarked on a path of modernizing our border security regime through the cooperation agreement between the United States of America and the Caribbean counterparts.”
The US ambassador also explained that by adopting APIS, countries would be better able to secure their airports and ports which leads them to enhancing regional security.
Attending yesterday’s signing ceremony were H.E. the Governor, Mr. John Freeman, Premier, Hon. Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson, Deputy Premier and Minister of Border Control, Hon. Sean Astwood, Minister of Home Affairs, Hon. Vaden Williams, Minister of Infrastructure, Hon. Goldray Ewing, Minister of Health, Hon. Edwin Astwood, Officials of the Ministry of Border Control and Employment and Staff of the Immigration Department.
The Hon. Premier signing the MOU on behalf of the Turks and Caicos Islands and H.E. the Governor signed on behalf of the United Kingdom.
Diddy breaks silence over ex Kim Porter's sudden death
Hip hop star Sean "Diddy" Combs has broken his silence three days after the death of his former partner Kim Porter, with whom he had three children.
Ms Porter, 47, was Mr Combs's partner for 13 years.
Emergency services were called to her home around noon last Thursday, according to TMZ, and her cause of death is still under investigation.
According to reports, she had recently been unwell and was prescribed antibiotics.
On Twitter, Mr Combs wrote: "For the last three days I've been trying to wake up out of this nightmare. But I haven't. I don't know what I'm going to do without you baby. I miss you so much. Today I'm going to pay tribute to you, I'm going to try and find the words to explain our unexplainable relationship."
A video posted alongside the tribute on social media featured the couple expressing their love for one another.
"We were more than best friends, we were more than soulmates," Mr Combs tweeted.
Reports surfaced on Friday that model and actress Kim Porter - a former longtime girlfriend to rap mogul Diddy and mother to three of his children - had died, aged 47.
Figures in the hip hop community have been paying tribute and offering condolences after a spokesperson for Diddy - real name Sean Combs - confirmed the death on Thursday.
No further details about the death were given.
Rapper Missy Elliot was among those paying tribute on Twitter, saying her "heart just aches so much 4 her children".