Viagogo sues Ed Sheeran's promoter in fraud claim
Ed Sheeran's promoter is being sued by ticket reseller Viagogo for allegedly defrauding music fans.
Viagogo claims that Stuart Galbraith's firm, Kilimanjaro Live, set up fake Viagogo stalls during Mr Sheeran's 2017 tour where it voided genuine tickets and told fans to buy new ones.
Mr Galbraith described Viagogo's allegations as "totally false".
Viagogo's move is the latest in a long-running feud between artists and their promoters and ticket resellers.
Mr Sheeran himself has been vocal in criticising secondary ticketing sites for snapping up thousands of tickets only to resell them above their face value.
Swiss-based Viagogo filed the lawsuit against Mr Galbraith and Kilimanjaro Live a day before both companies are due to appear in front of the Department for Media, Culture and Sport select committee.
Christopher Miller, head of business development at Viagogo, will face questions from MPs, including about the firm's conduct.
St Lucia airport corruption allegations attract US media attention
Long-standing allegations of corruption involving government ministers and other officials in Saint Lucia and a South Florida businessman have attracted the attention of the widely-read Florida newspaper, The Miami Herald.
In a lengthy article on Monday, Herald reporters Adiel Kaplan and Aaron Leibowitz described how Antonio Assenza, who came to the United States from Venezuela in 1990, became tangled up in a corruption scandal involving a proposed $157 million redevelopment project at Hewanorra International Airport (HIA) in Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia, in 2009.
In 2014, the government of Saint Lucia requested assistance from the United States in relation to a criminal investigation into suspected bribery regarding the airport redevelopment project.
The targets of the investigation were initially said to be Assenza and Guy Joseph, Saint Lucia’s current minister for economic development, housing, urban renewal, transport and civil aviation.
However, from court documents filed in US federal court in Fort Lauderdale, which although meant to be kept under seal were instead filed publicly in the Southern District of Florida, the investigation also focused on Andre Edgar, a businessman in Saint Lucia, and Sean Matthew, former head of the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority (SLASPA).
According to Saint Lucian authorities, in 2009 SLASPA requested proposals for the development of a new airport, which was an estimated $157 million project. After evaluating the submitted proposals, SLASPA was to present its recommendation to the Saint Lucian Cabinet, which would make the final determination.
With input from Matthew, as then head of SLASPA, and others, Assenza and his local company Asphalt & Mining (St Lucia) Company Limited (A&M) submitted a proposal for the project. Prior to and during the request for proposal process, Assenza, Edgar, Joseph, and Matthew were in regular communication with one another via telephone.
The volume of calls increased at key points in the bidding period, including before and after Assenza’s pitch meeting with SLASPA. In total, some 200 calls were made between Assenza, his business partner and three government officials – Joseph, Matthew, and then tourism minister, now prime minister, Allen Chastanet – in the months leading up to the initial contract award in 2009. The majority of the calls were made before the request for bids was even announced.
The investigation did not find any calls to the other two bidders during that crucial time.
When asked by the Herald about the calls, Assenza noted that the majority did not involve him personally and, besides, he had proper cause to communicate with the government because he was separately working on other public roads projects on the island. Indeed, the investigation found most of the calls involved Assenza’s partner, a Saint Lucian businessman who was close friends with Joseph.
In fact, A&M had been awarded two substantial so-called “direct purchase” contracts previously at the behest of Joseph as the responsible minister without any advertising or any competitive bidding. One contract to rehabilitate the Babonneau Highway in Saint Lucia was valued at EC$12.24 million (US$4.5 million), while the other to rehabilitate the Desruisseaux Road was valued at EC$10.55 million (US$3.9 million).
Both contracts were later revealed to be significantly overpriced.
Nevertheless, the volume of the calls overall “increased at key points in the bidding period, including before and after Assenza’s pitch meeting with the Port Authority.”
In August 2009, the Port Authority recommended that another competitor be awarded the bid, with Assenza’s bid ranked last out of the three proposals received.
In September 2009, Matthew met with the Saint Lucian Cabinet to present the development plans. A high volume of calls between Assenza, Edgar, Joseph, and Matthew occurred around Matthew’s presentation to the Cabinet. A few days after the meeting, Joseph provided the Port Authority with additional details about A&M’s proposal.
In October 2009, Matthew and SLASPA recommended further negotiation with A&M.
SLASPA then wrote to all three bidders notifying them that their bids were unsuccessful and, under instructions from the Cabinet, issued a new request for proposals. A&M submitted a new proposal.
In January 2010, the Port Authority recommended A&M as the winning bidder. In February 2010, the Cabinet approved the award to A&M.
As part of its winning bid, A&M agreed to provide US$23,550,000 interest-free counterpart financing for the project. Saint Lucia planned to obtain the rest of the financing for the project from Deutsche Bank. In July 2012, Deutsche Bank notified SLASPA that they could not move forward with their portion of the financing, in part because Assenza failed the bank’s due diligence requirements. The project did not proceed at that time due to lack of funding.
Saint Lucian investigators believed that the facts are indicative of a criminal agreement between Assenza and public officials in the government of Saint Lucia regarding the project.
Based upon the date of the initial request for assistance by the Saint Lucia attorney general on November 12, 2014, and the amended request on December 15, 2015, it seems clear that the investigation was launched locally during the previous administration of then-prime minister, Dr Kenny Anthony.
PlayStation 2 repair services close in Japan
Sony has ended its repair service for the PlayStation 2, more than 18 years after it first went on sale.
The console was first released in Japan in March 2000 and remains the best-selling games console ever produced.
Manufacturing of the device ended in 2012, six years after the follow-up PS3 console had been released.
Sony said it was no longer able to offer repairs because it was running out of replacement parts for the ageing console.
In a statement, the company thanked customers for their "continued patronage".
Gamers seeking repairs will now have to try their luck with unofficial services.
More than 150 million PlayStation 2 consoles have been sold.
The latest model, the PS4, has sold about 80 million units.
Rival console-maker Microsoft no longer reports sales figures for its Xbox One console. But the consultancy IHS Markit estimates more than 40 million have been sold.
Amazon's market value tops $1tn
Amazon has briefly become the second US-listed firm to have a market value of more than $1 trillion (£779bn).
Shares in the e-commerce giant rose nearly 2% to a high of $2,050.50 in morning trade before slipping back.
Apple reached the same milestone in early August.
Founded in 1994, Amazon is now the world's largest online retailer. Its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, is the world's richest man, with a net worth of more than $160bn.
Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, said: "To reach a market capitalisation of over $1tn is impressive. To do it in a little over 24 years is extraordinary.
"That Amazon has achieved this demonstrates its dramatic advancement in both the retail and technology sectors, as well as the influence it now wields over large parts of the consumer landscape."
Amazon reported nearly $53bn in sales in the three months ended in June, with record quarterly profit of $2.5bn.
The firm is expected to account for roughly half of all online shopping sales in the US this year - and nearly 5% of the country's overall retail market, according to research firm eMarketer.
It employs more than 575,000 people, a force nearly the size of Luxembourg's population.
It provides logistics, storage, loans and a selling platform to hundreds of thousands of third-party merchants.
Its profitable cloud computing division, which hosts huge swathes of the corporate world on its data servers, is the industry's global leader.
Japan's strongest typhoon in 25 years kills at least six
Japan has been hit by its strongest typhoon in 25 years, causing at least six deaths and 160 injuries.
Typhoon Jebi made landfall in western areas, bringing heavy rain and reports of winds up to 172km/h (107mph).
In Osaka Bay it swept a tanker into a bridge and in Kyoto parts of a railway station roof came down.
Officials ordered more than a million people in affected areas to evacuate their homes amid warnings of high waves, flooding and mudslides.
It has already left tens of thousands without power and authorities have urged people to move to safety.
The storm made landfall on Shikoku island around noon on Tuesday local time and then moved across Japan's largest main island of Honshu.
It is expected to weaken as it moves north.
INTERNATIONAL COASTAL CLEAN-UP 2018 TO BE THE BIGGEST YET!
Saturday, September 22 marks International Coastal Clean-up Day and the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR) is looking to continue its tradition of getting the whole country involved in cleaning up the coastlines of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
This year, in an effort to encourage even more people to go out into their communities and help with the clean-up efforts, the DECR has teamed up with the Turks & Caicos Tourist Board, the Turks & Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association (TCHTA) and the Turks & Caicos National Trust!
“In 2016, 237 individuals collected over 455 bags of trash nation-wide. Unfortunately, last year’s efforts were thwarted by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, but this year we hope to not only gain increased support for the clean-up campaign, but make it the biggest clean-up effort the TCI has ever seen!”, said Amy Avenant, Environmental Outreach Coordinator for the DECR.
The main goal of this initiative is to encourage people to go out into their communities, across the TCI, and remove litter found along the shoreline, underwater, or in bushes in order to help create healthy waters for everyone, including the wildlife that calls these coasts home.
Hon. Ralph Higgs expressed his support of this event, stating; “The Ministry and its departments are happy to be partnering with our communities and business sector in observance of International Coastal Cleanup Day. This international event is significant in bringing awareness to the importance of our coasts and keeping it free of waste and debris. The Ministry remains committed to supporting and promoting initiatives that reduce waste and promote sustainable use of our natural resources.”
Speaking on the involvement of the Tourist Board, Mr. Ramon Andrews, Director of the Turks & Caicos Tourist Board said; “The Turks and Caicos Tourist Board is once again delighted to join our partners in observing International Coastal Clean-up Day. With the community’s support and involvement, we can take action to address the issue of pollution throughout our islands. This initiative is not only important to preserve our tourism product and to safeguard its sustainability, but also to ensure that as residents we are able to live in a clean environment and be accountable for maintaining its cleanliness.
This initiative will be ongoing and the public can look forward to Tourism Environmental Awareness Month in November, when the Tourist Board will be focusing our efforts on educating the public on the drawbacks of single use plastics and driving home the message that each of us have a personal responsibility to enhance and protect our number one industry, tourism.”
You, your school, your business, and/or your organization can get involved by getting a group together and spending an hour out of your day cleaning up a beach, bushy area, path, road, or sea-bed in your local area. You can also join one of the many organized groups, as any of the locations listed below.
Show you care for the TCI’s natural environment by getting involved in International Coastal Clean-up Day! Together we can fight for trash-free seas, on Saturday, September 22. It doesn’t matter where you are, just grab a bag and collect that litter!
DECR has registered this event with the Ocean Conservancy - Ocean Conservancy works to keep the ocean healthy, to keep us healthy
SUBSIDY FOR THE PROVISION OF AIRLIFT SERVICE TO THE ISLANDS OF SOUTH CAICOS AND SALT CAY FROM GRAND TURK
The Turks and Caicos Islands Government would like to advise the commuting public that InterCaribbean Airways has won the bid for the subsidy to ensure that adequate airlift services are provided to the islands of South Caicos and Salt Cay.
For at least the past four (4) years, each year, during the appropriation process, the Ministry of Finance, Trade and Investment assesses the need for the service and includes a provisional amount in the budget accordingly. A tender process is conducted annually, following the House of Assembly’s approval of the Budget.
To date, the assessments have indicated a need for the subsidy; as passenger volumes (based on market perception and actual data recorded by the airlines and the TCI Airport Authority) are inadequate to attract a profitable business proposal from would-be service providers. Based on the analysis, unsubsidised airfares would be prohibitive for the average consumer or there will be no service at all.
The subsidy will ensure that essential air services are in place to guarantee that these small communities receive a minimal level of scheduled airlift.
The Turks and Caicos Islands Government would like to thank Caicos Express Airways for the stellar service provided over the years and welcomes InterCaribbean Airways as the new service provider of these routes.
ENDS
Government Press Office
Waterloo Road, Grand Turk
Turks & Caicos Islands
THIS IS A NEWS ITEM ON TROPICAL STORM FLORENCE TUESDAY, 4TH SEPTEMBER, 2018
FLORENCE STILL JUST BELOW HURRICANE STRENGTH…
LOCATION: NEAR LATITUDE 19.3°NORTH AND LONGITUDE 42.0° WEST OR ABOUT 1205 MILES WEST-NORTHWEST OF THE CABO VERDE ISLANDS OR 1300 MILES EAST-NORTHEAST OF THE LESSER ANTILLES.
PRESENT MOVEMENT: TROPICAL STORM FLORENCE IS MOVING TOWARD WEST NEAR 13 MILES PER HOUR.
AT 5:00AM EDT, THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM FLORENCE WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 19.3°NORTH AND LONGITUDE 42.0° WEST OR ABOUT 1205 MILES WEST-NORTHWEST OF THE CABO VERDE ISLANDS OR 1300 MILES EAST-NORTHEAST OF THE LESSER ANTILLES. FLORENCE IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST AT 13 MPH, AND THIS GENERAL MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS FOLLOWED BY A TURN TOWARD THE NORTHWEST AROUND FRIDAY.
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 70 MILES PER HOUR (MPH) WITH HIGHER GUSTS. LITTLE
CHANGE IN STRENGTH IS EXPECTED THROUGH TONIGHT, BUT SOME WEAKENING IS FORECAST ON WEDNESDAY. AFTERWARD, GRADUAL STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST THROUGH THE WEEKEND.
TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
Florence is several hundred miles away from the TCI. Forecasters have indicated that the system is currently projected to continue on a West North West path this motion is expected to continue for the next few days, with some weakening forecast on Wednesday and a turn to the Northwest around Friday. As this information is based on current projections, Florence poses no threat to the Turks and Caicos Islands at this time, residents should continue to monitor Florence. The Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies (DDME) will continue to monitor and provide information of any changes.
The next advisory issued on Florence by the DDME will be at 6:00pm. If it appears Florence may pose an immediate threat to the TCI, advisories will be issued in keeping with those of the Bahamas Department of Meteorology Forecast Office Section.
BAHAMAS AND TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS PUBLIC FORECAST FOR TODAY AND TONIGHT TUESDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER 2018
GENERAL SITUATION: SKY COVERAGE AND RAIN CHANCES HAVE DIMINISHED OVER THE BAHAMAS AS TROPICAL STORM GORDON MOVES FARTHER AWAY WHILE HIGH PRESSURE MAINTAINS SOME BREEZY CONDITIONS ACROSS THE ISLANDS TODAY.
SPECIAL WARNINGS: BOATERS AND RESIDENTS SHOULD ALSO REMAIN VIGILANT FOR POSSIBLE WATERSPOUT ACTIVITY WHILE BEACHGOERS IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS SHOULD EXERCISE CAUTION DUE TO RIP CURRENTS AT NORTH AND EAST COAST BEACHES.
CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS INCLUDING THE TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
WEATHER: TO MOSTLY SUNNY WITH A STRAY SHOWER OR TWO POSSIBLE.
ADVISORY: SMALL CRAFT CAUTION REMAINS IN EFFECT.
WINDS: EASTERLY AT 15 TO 20 KNOTS OVER OPEN WATERS
SEAS: 4 TO 6 FEET OVER THE OCEAN.
NORTHWEST BAHAMAS
WEATHER: PARTLY TO MOSTLY SUNNY AND HOT WITH A FEW BRIEF PASSING SHOWERS POSSIBLE TODAY. FAIR AND WARM WITH A STRAY SHOWER OR TWO POSSIBLE TONIGHT.
ADVISORY: BOATERS SHOULD BE ALERT FOR GUSTY WINDS AND HIGHER SEAS IN OR NEAR HEAVY SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
WINDS: EASTERLY AT 10 TO 15 KNOTS.
SEAS: 2 TO 4 FEET OVER THE OCEAN.
DAYTIME HIGH TEMPERATURE 91°F 33°C
OVERNITE LOW TEMPERATURE 77°F 25°C
HEAT INDEX 103°F 40°C
SUNRISE: 6:52AM
SUNSET: 7:23PM
MOONSET: 3:12PM
MOONRISE: 2:18AM WED
LOW TIDE: 8:05AM 9:07PM
HIGH TIDE: 2:36PM 2:58AM WED
EXTENDED FORECAST: A RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE WILL QUICKLY BUILD ACROSS THE BAHAMAS ALLOWING FOR DRIER PATTERN, HOWEVER WILL WEAKEN THROUGH THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEK.
THIS IS A NEWS ITEM ON TROPICAL STORM GORDON MONDAY, 3rd SEPTEMBER, 2018.
GORDON IS LASHING SOUTH FLORIDA WITH TROPICAL-STORM-FORCE WINDS AND HEAVY RAINS …
LOCATION: NEAR LATITUDE 25.3°NORTH AND LONGITUDE 81.3° WEST OR ABOUT 60 MILES WEST-NORTHWEST OF KEY LARGO FLORIDA.
PRESENT MOVEMENT: GORDON IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 16 MILES PER HOUR
AT 11AM DST, THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM GORDON WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 25.3°NORTH AND LONGITUDE 81.3° WEST OR ABOUT 60 MILES WEST-NORTHWEST OF KEY LARGO FLORIDA.
GORDON IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 16 MILES PER HOUR AND A WEST-NORTHWEST TO NORTHWESTWARD MOTION IS EXPECTED OVER THE NEXT 72 HOURS. ON THE FORECAST TRACK THE CENTER OF GORDON WILL EMERGE OVER THE SOUTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO BY EARLY AFTERNOON, REACH THE CENTRAL GULF COAST BY LATE TUESDAY OR TUESDAY NIGHT AND MOVE INLAND OVER THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ON WEDNESDAY.
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 45 MILES PER HOUR (MPH) WITH HIGHER GUSTS. STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 36 TO 48 HOURS AND GORDON COULD BE NEAR HURRICANE STRENGTH WHEN IT MAKES LANDFALL ALONG THE CENTRAL GULF COAST.