HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC –The Bermuda government says it will crack down on tax dodgers who owe it a whopping US$85 million in unpaid taxes. A Finance Ministry spokesman said the sum is the total amount of unpaid tax receivables more than 90 days old at the end of 2012. The bulk of the figure, which does not include social insurance contributions, comes from unpaid payroll tax and represents almost 10 per cent of government’s estimated $871 million revenue for the coming financial year.
Bermuda
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC - Community Development Minister Wayne Scott says government has ruled out giving the green light to same-sex marriages. Government said earlier this month it proposed to amend the island's Human Rights Act by adding sexual orientation to the list of prohibited categories of discrimination in the areas of the provision of goods, services and accommodation. But, he said, the changes will not go any further and same-sex marriages are not on the government's agenda.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC - The new One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) government plans to introduce human rights regulations that will protect gays and lesbians from discrimination. Attorney General Mark Pettingill says Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory, is at present in violation of European laws that makes it an offence not to provide protection for gays and lesbians within its Human Rights Act. Pettingill told the Royal Gazette newspaper that government was moving quickly to amend the law and that changes would be put before parliament “within the next number of weeks”.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC – Speculation is rife here that opposition parliamentarian Terry Lister will announce his resignation from the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) during Friday's sitting of the House of Assembly. Unconfirmed reports say Lister, a former cabinet minister, will sit as an independent. He has twice put himself up for the PLP leadership but failed on both occasions.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, Feb 10, CMC - Four Irish sailors bound for the Caribbean were rescued from their stricken yacht, which later sank, 70 miles north of Bermuda. According to reports the sailors had planned to stop in Bermuda before heading to Antigua following the incident marine officials reported that the sailors are now heading to Turkey. The men - two in their 70s and two in their 50s , had to deal with battery failure 400 miles off the Delaware coast as well as engine failure on board the Wolfhound, a 48-foot Swan class sloop, a day after departing Westbrook, Connecticut.
MCALLEN, Texas, (Reuters) – U.S. authorities seized $2.2 million from a bank account they said was controlled by a former Mexican official-turned-fugitive who is accused of stealing public funds in a scheme that involved hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent bank loans, according to court papers released yesterday. Federal authorities seized the money from the Bermuda bank account believed to have been controlled by Hector Javier Villarreal Hernandez, a former finance secretary in Mexico’s Coahuila state on the border with Texas.
Bermuda, CMC - A Canadian low-cost airline says it plans to sue a couple after they were fined US$500 each in a court here following an altercation on a Caribbean-bound plane which forced the captain to divert the airline to Bermuda.
Bermuda police arrested the Canadian couple and their 22-year-old son after the Sunwing Airlines' flight, carrying 170 passengers, touched down at Bermuda's L.F. Wade International Airport last Friday. A younger son with the family was not arrested.
The plane continued its journey to its original destination on Saturday.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC -- The new One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) government has scrapped the island’s term limit policy, introduced by the previous administration 12 years ago, in a move aimed at boosting the sluggish economy. Announcing the policy change during a media briefing on Wednesday, Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy said “We believe that the elimination of the policy will help spark economic growth and create employment opportunities for Bermudians. “I want to assure the people of this country that this was not a decision that was taken lightly.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC – The main opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) has dismissed claims by Premier Craig Cannonier that it spent “upwards of US$100 million a year on consultants”.
PLP chairman Maynard Dill described the claims as “fairytale numbers” indicating that figures released on the website of the Ministry of Finance showed the figure to be $50.7 million for the year.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC - Premier Craig Cannonier has announced a 50 per cent reduction in the fleet of official cars used by cabinet ministers as his new One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) administration moves to reduce expenditure.
Premier Cannonier said while the OBA is still analysing the country's financial state, voters have clearly indicated that they “want and expect our government to be rational and organized as we face these enormous financial challenges that were inherited from the PLP (Progressive Liberal Party).