Tax challenge possible
Caribbean countries are to consider whether to mount a legal challenge to a “discriminatory” British travel tax.
The new coalition UK government has put off switching from a per passenger to a per plane duty until later in the year. The Air Passenger Duty has been criticised both domestically and in the Caribbean, which regards the distance-based levy as “unfair and unbalanced.”
“We simply should not be in a different tax band to the US,” John Maginley, chairman of the inter-governmental Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) said in a statement.
He said the issue was so serious for tourist-dependent member nations that they were “planning to review the opportunity for putting a legal challenge to the British government.” Deeming the duty “effectively a tax on our countries’ exports, Maginley said the CTO members also planned to raise the matter within the World Trade Organisation.
Whaling talks collapse
Attempts to find a compromise between whaling nations and their opponents at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Morocco have collapsed.
Delegates had been working since Monday to find an agreement that would allow Japan, Iceland and Norway to hunt whales commercially, while reducing the total number of whales killed and providing international oversight for ten years. A BBC correspondent said that behind the scenes, the different sides have now started to blame each other for the breakdown.
Senator held on corruption charges
A Puerto Rican senator has been indicted for allegedly supporting legislation in favour of a private security company in exchange for a trip to Las Vegas to watch a boxing match. The US Justice Department said Senator Hector Martinez Maldonado is accused of trading political favours for services from businessman Juan Bravo Fernandez.
The indictment alleges Martinez accepted a first-class trip to Nevada to watch a boxing match between Felix Trinidad and Winky Wright in May, two months after he allegedly submitted a bill that favoured Bravo’s business.
A statement from Martinez’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the charges would be proven false.
Dissident freed in Cuba
A court in Cuba has released a prominent opposition activist after eleven months in prison without trial.
The court found Darsy Ferrer guilty of buying cement on the black market, but said he had already served enough time. Human rights activists said his arrest for an offence usually punished with a simple fine was an attempt to silence his criticism of the government. His release follows a series of concessions to political prisoners by the Cuban authorities following talks with the Roman Catholic church.
Earlier this month the authorities released a jailed dissident who was seriously ill and moved others to jails closer to their homes.
‘Nuisance ‘rapper’ taunts police
Police in the English city of Manchester are trying to find a would-be dancehall style rapper, who’s made thousands of nuisance 999 emergency calls over the past eighteen months.
Manchester police say they’ve blocked more than 60 mobile-phone SIM cards the man’s been using.
They say he’s costing them up to $1,500 a month – chanting, singing and sometimes rapping down the phone.
