World News

(CNS): The government of Turks and Caicos has been awarded a judgment of $9.29 million involving the Emerald Cay private island property, following a ruling by Chief Justice Edwin Goldsborough on Wednesday. The court ruled that Tim Blixseth, helped conceal the true value of the retreat and underpaid stamp duty on the deal. Attorney General Huw Shepheard said the judgment against Emerald Cay Ltd. and Worldwide Commercial Properties Ltd. replaces an interim award of $1.25 million because of stiffer penalties.

(The Guardian): The Liberal Democrats' biggest donor, who has been on the run for three years after being convicted of a multimillion pound theft, has been arrested by police in the Dominican Republic, the Guardian can disclose. Michael Brown, who bankrolled the party with £2.4m of stolen money, was detained near the resort of Punta Cana on the easternmost tip of the Caribbean island this week. Interpol has been informed. Named by City of London police as one of Britain's most wanted fraudsters, Brown, 45, disappeared while on bail for a £40m fraud and was sentenced in his absence to seven years in prison.

(BBC): Former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin has had his knighthood removed. Goodwin, who was heavily criticised over his role in the bank's near-collapse in 2008, was given the honour by the Labour government in 2004. The Queen cancelled and annulled the title following Whitehall advice. Party leaders, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, welcomed the decision. In the past, only convicted criminals or people struck off professional bodies have had knighthoods taken away. Goodwin oversaw the multi-billion-pound deal to buy Dutch rival ABN Amro at the height of the financial crisis in 2007, which led to RBS having to be bailed out to the tune of £45bn by taxpayers.

(CNS): The UK has agreed to re-open the dialogue with Caribbean countries on issues relating to the Air Passenger Duty (APD) which is threatening the region’s tourism sector. The UK agreed “in the spirit of cooperation and in the context of the importance of tourism to the economic development of the Caribbean,” at this weekend’s forum to continue dialogue with a view to assisting the region in mitigating any deleterious effects the tax may have on its economies. At the end of the seventh UK-Caribbean Forum in Grenada the Caribbean and the United Kingdom have also agreed on a new strategic partnership to promote prosperity growth and development within both regions.

(BBC): A large oil rig has arrived off the coast of Cuba to begin searching for offshore oil deposits. Several international companies will use the rig to drill exploratory wells in deep water in the Florida Strait, which separates Cuba from the US. Cuba is hoping to confirm estimates that it has billions of barrels of oil in offshore fields. But there is concern in the US that a deep water spill could devastate the coast of Florida. The Chinese-built rig - known as Scarabeo 9 - could be seen from the Cuban capital Havana as it moved slowly west. First to use it will be the Spanish oil company Repsol YPF, which plans to drill an exploratory well around 100km (62 miles) from the Florida Keys.

(CNS): Following the announcement by the TCI government yesterday the Progressive National Party (PNP) leader Clayton Greene confirmed Wednesday that he was the man arrested and questioned by the special investigations and prosecution team (SIPT). Greene said his arrest related to money he received on behalf of his cousin Quinton Hall. The PNP leader added that SIPT interviewed him about US$1 million which Hall had received for the 2006 sale of an interest in Crown land. “I did not act for Quinton Hall in the sale; however, his proceeds of sale did come to a trust account which my firm operated at TCI Bank and from which I disbursed the funds on Quinton's instructions,” Greene said.

(CNS): Officials in the Turks and Caicos Islands confirmed that another arrest was made this week by investigating team which is delving into allegations of corruption and misappropriation of government cash in the UK overseas territory.  “A 47 year old man was arrested on Tuesday by the Special Investigation Prosecution Team (SIPT) in relation to their on-going investigation. He was released on police bail pending further inquires,” the spokesperson from the TCI governor’s office stated. The investigation which is said to have cost around $17.5million so far and included several charges against four former government ministers and the islands investors.

(CNS): The UK’s relationship with the Caribbean is unequal and backward looking, the British Foreign Secretary said on the eve of his visit to the region. William Hague said the relationship should be a modern partnership and he wanted the UK and the Caribbean to cooperate more closely on what he described as the big international issues. As well as fighting crime and building resilient economies, he said the partnership should involve business, civil society and ordinary people.  “I believe that our relationship in recent years has been too backward-looking and less equal than it should be for the twenty-first century,” Hague wrote on the FCO website.

(CNS): An international survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers has revealed that fraud continues to be a persistent threat in the public sector the world over with asset misappropriation, accounting fraud and bribery and corruption the top three frauds. The report said that a large number of frauds are committed by employees that organisations trust and have access to significant amounts of data. It also found a rise in procurement frauds in the last twelve months. The survey shows that despite being the most likely perpetrators of fraud, public sector workers are less likely to be dismissed over fraudulent acts than other sectors. 

(Caribbean Journal): The 2011 general election in Jamaica saw the use of traditional and social media in ways never before experienced on that island. This was the first such election in that country since the coming of age of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, three of the most popular social networks. The former Prime Minister, Andrew Holness went as far as to indicate that the Jamaica Labour Party would be relying less on traditional media and more on social media to communicate their messages to the people, so that, as he said, “the people can get the message unfiltered, untwisted … the truth.'

(CNS): The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution to construct a permanent memorial to those who suffered under the yoke of slavery and the transatlantic trade at its headquarters, UN officials confirmed Thursday.  The assembly stressed the importance of educating and informing current and future generations about the causes, consequences and lessons of slavery, and requested the Secretary-General to continue organizing activities related to the commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which is held annually on 25 March.

(CNS):Jamaica’s contractor general is calling on the new People's National Party government to stop the negotiations with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) over the US$600-million North-South Link Highway 2000, which involves granting a 50-year toll concession to the company. Greg Christie has raised concerns about the project and sought a meeting with the new administration to canvass its opinion on recommendations and "strong objections” to the former government’s intention to award the contract to CHEC without a competitive tender. The Beijing based firm, which is also in negotiations with the Cayman government to build the George Town cruise port, has been at the centre of a public contract controversy in Jamaica.

(CNS): John Yates the man who was in charge of the discredited Operation Tempura investigation in the Cayman Islands is believed to have been given a pay-off in the UK after he resigned in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal according to the Daily Mail. The British tabloid reports that Yates and Former Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson could have received as much as $500,000 between them after signing gagging orders which bar them from suing the Metropolitan Police or speaking about their treatment.

(CNS): Portia Simpson-Miller promised transparent and prudent government in her inaugural address at the swearing in ceremony in Jamaica Thursday. The PNP leader said she would implement short-term measures to tackle unemployment, and attract investment to address the country’s indebtedness and economic stagnation. "I know that we face an awesome task. There is greater debt, increased poverty levels, tighter fiscal space," she said, adding that her administration would not "engage in a blame-game but would "right the wrongs and insist on accountability."

(AP): Authorities in the Dominican Republic on Thursday auctioned off 27 luxury watches that once belonged to an alleged drug boss known as the "Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean." Each watch was sold for less than half its market value for a total of roughly $600,000, said Julio Cesar Suffront, financial investigations director for the National Drug Control Agency. The watches were taken to experts in Miami and valued at between $5,000 and $85,000 each, he said. They were the first items seized from Jose David Figueroa Agosto to be auctioned. The accused druglord also owned 20 properties and 10 luxury cars, including a special edition Camaro that runs on jet fuel and cost more than $75,000.