Category Archives: Caribbean

In the Navys version of the popular TV show, Deadliest Catch, the coastal patrol vesselZephyrand its embarked Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment have made a large haul of illicit drugs.

TheZephyr, along with the Karel Doorman-class multi-purpose frigate HNLMS Van Amstel of the Royal Netherlands Navy, pursued and boarded a small panga fishing boat in the Caribbean Sea on April 19. The crews found and confiscated750 kilograms of cocaine atotal street value of $22.5 million.

Zephyr is homeported in Mayport, Florida, and is currently deployed in the Caribbean in support of Operation Martillo, an ongoing joint service and multi-nation operation headed by the U.S. Southern Command and the Navys Mayport-based U.S. 4th Fleet.

Martillo, Spanish for "hammer," targets illicit trafficking routes in coastal waters along the Central American coastline.

Fourteen countries are participating in the operation: Belize, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States. Chile has also contributed to the operation.

In the five years since its 2012 launch, Martillo has supported the seizure of 693 metric tons of cocaine, $25 million in bulk cash, 581 vessels and aircraft and the arrest of 1,863 detainees, according to the U.S. Southern Command.

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Navy PC Zephyr and Coast Guard make $22.5M bust in Caribbean - NavyTimes.com

PHOTO: Participants in the Saint Lucia leg of the Flow Manchester United Ultimate Football Experience

Press Release:-MIAMI, FL, May 2, 2017 Hundreds of young footballers from around the region had the time of their lives as they were put to the test for a chance to be selected in the Ultimate Football Experience, a competition designed and executed by Flow and Manchester United with the support of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).

Participants between the ages of 13 and 16 gathered on football fields across Flows 15 Caribbean markets for the preliminary rounds of the Flow Ultimate Football Experience. 30 lucky winners, two from each market qualified to go to Trinidad and Tobago to compete in the final two-day event on May 6 and 7, with the opportunity to win the ultimate prize of a trip to Old Trafford, Manchester to see a Manchester United Premier League fixture.

With the chance to potentially win the trip of a lifetime fuelling their competitive fires, each young footballer participated in a series of drills such as ball control, short passing and dribbling, as they tried to set themselves apart from the pack.

But it wasnt just about the grand prize or rubbing shoulders with Manchester United Club Ambassador Dwight Yorke and legend, Quinton Fortune, for as one of Saint Lucias winners, 13-year-old Jeremiah Justins remarks suggest, many youngsters found a sense of pride and motivation simply in the chance to represent their wider community.

I am very proud to win this for myself, my family, and my community, Jeremiah said. I think we just came in here and gave it our best, and we are both really excited to have made it to the regional finals. I just want to say thank you to Flow, and I hope I make the best out of it in Trinidad.

Additionally, the participating local coaches were impressed by the Flow Ultimate Football Experience, especially the mechanics of the skills competition itself, which were developed by coaches at the Manchester United Soccer School (MUSS). They also thanked Flow for the companys investment in up-and-coming Caribbean athletes.

The Flow Ultimate Football Experience was wonderful, said Jerry Alexis, who coaches both winners in Grenada. I felt elated to be part of the event. The kids were excited to partake in the different skills that were included. This was a great gesture by Flow to organise and such a great opportunity for our young footballers. I am hoping that there will be more like these happening in the future.

Giving young athletes a greater shot at success and bringing the region closer to their favourite sport is exactly what Flow and Man Utd are trying to achieve with the Flow Ultimate Football Experience. It is in fact just one of several other initiatives organized by the two partners, a recent one being the FA Cup Caribbean Tour, which gave football fans up-close and unprecedented access to footballs most coveted trophy.

Garry Sinclair, Flows President, Caribbean, reiterated Flows commitment to providing new and exciting opportunities for athletes of all ages to further enrich sport across the region.

While there is an exciting grand prize for the eventual winners of the Flow Ultimate Football Experience, its the lasting impact this event will have on our sporting community which makes us most proud, said Sinclair. Were glad the events in all our markets have been executed so smoothly and it gives me personal satisfaction hearing all of the positive feedback from participants, knowing what this initiative has meant for their communities. We want to congratulate the winners, but also want to let these youngsters know that were proud of them and to keep working hard to achieve your dreams and know that Flow is here to support you every step along the way.

(13-year-old Jeremiah Justin from Gros Islet, one of the Flow Manchester United Ultimate Football Experience winners)

(Djal Augustin of Anse La Raye impressed in the Flow Manchester United Football Experience)

Saint Lucia will be represented in Trinidad and Tobago by Jeremiah Justin of Gros Islet, and Djal Augustin of Anse La Raye.

(Winners, Jeremiah and Djal with Flow Saint Lucia Acting Marketing Manager, Terry Finisterre)

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Flow Ultimate Football Experience Leaves Lasting Impact on Young Caribbean Footballers - St. Lucia Times Online News (press release)

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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) Thinking about taking a trip to the Caribbean? Youre in luck.

Travel enthusiast, Dana Rebmann was in the KRON4 studios Sunday morning to tell us the best places to consider when island hopping.

CORN ISLAND, Nicaragua Five minutes from the airport, Corn Island is the perfect place for those who love their privacy.This off-the-beaten-path location is known for its breathtaking Caribbean sunsets.

LITTLE CORN ISLAND,NicaraguaIf you wish to be even more secluded, Little Corn Island is asmaller version of Corn Island, and is accessible viaboat ride. Dana says this is about as laid back as it gets.

DOMINICA For all the hike-lovers out there, this is where its at! Not to be confused with the Dominican Republic, the island is all about waterfalls and rain forest, and is usually not crowded with tourists. This is also one of the few places in the world where you can find sperm whales all year long, which makes it the perfect whale-watching destination.

For more places to see and activities to try in the Caribbean, watch the full interview above!

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TRAVEL: Planning your next Caribbean vacation - KRON4.com

Aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Geologically speaking the Caribbean is a lively place. Recent reminders include the 1995 volcanic eruption on Montserrat, and the devastating magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010. Occasionally the Caribbean produces even more powerful outbursts.

Back in February 1843 the region was shaken by an estimated magnitude 8.3 quake, reducing Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe to ruins and killing one third (1,500) of its inhabitants. Meanwhile, 2,000 people are thought to have perished in a quake of unspecified magnitude which shook Jamaica in 1692.

So when will the Caribbeans next major rumble be? This month scientists aboard a research ship the RRS James Cook will be taking measurements to try to gain some early warning clues. Led by Jenny Collier of Imperial College London, they will be following the seawater that is drawn down into the Earth east of the Caribbean islands, where the oceanic plate dives underground.

Using seismic reflections and sensitive recording devices on the seafloor, the scientists will see if they can spot where water comes into the system and how this affects the surrounding geology.

Water is a key component in causing the mantle to melt, which eventually forms magma at shallower depths, causing potentially hazardous volcanoes, explains Stephen Hicks from the University of Southampton. It may also lubricate or increase the pressure along titanic faults that have the potential to cause huge earthquakes.

By tracking the movement of water, down to hundreds of miles depth, they hope to better understand what causes the build-up of magma in some places, and why some parts of the plate boundary produce more earthquakes than others.

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Scientists search for Caribbean quake clues - The Guardian

ANAHEIM, Calif. Johnny Depp surprised fans at Disneyland, by popping up on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in his full Capt. Jack Sparrow costume.

The actor was waving his cutlas and talking to riders with his patented British slur on Wednesday night, not far from the animatronic versions of his character that appear throughout the ride.

Identical twins Sarah and Rebecca Saryan sailed right up to him and he told everyone to jump into the water, so he could get into the boat (nobody did).

Sarah Saryan said they knew that Disney was filming, but they didnt know what was going on until they saw him.

The 29-year-olds have been annual passholders since they were four and Rebecca works at the park.

We have had some great Disney experiences, Sarah Saryan said. This is, by far, one of the best.

People squealed and laughed when they realized what was happening.

Angelica Ramos was in the park with friends when she saw the television lights and started hearing rumblings that Depp was there. They rushed to get in line and saw Depp near the area where riders get into their boats.

Lauren Cordelia wasnt even in the park when she heard Depp was there. She lives in Orange County and got a tip from a friend, who had seen him earlier in the day.

I have an annual pass [so] once I heard Captain Jack was there, I raced over, she said.

She got close enough to see him stagger down the stairs and brandish his sword at a couple of men, who appeared to be acting as security.

If you werent in the park on Wednesday, youll stil get to see a lot of Capt. Jack Sparrow this summer. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales opens next month.

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Johnny Depp stuns fans on Disneyland's 'Pirates of the Caribbean ... - Fox 59

CMC The National Disaster Management Agency is monitoring an increase in activities taking place at Kick em Jenny, the regions only submarine volcano located between Grenada and the Grenadine island of Carriacou.

In a release early Sunday, the disaster agency said it has been advised of the increase in activity by the Seismic Research Centre (SRC) of the University of the West Indies (UWI).

The UWI/SRC recorded a high amplitude signal, lasting about 25 seconds, on one of the Grenada stations. The signal was also recorded on a station in Montserrat. This signal follows an increase in the number of background events associated with the Kick-em-Jenny volcano, said the release which confirmed that persons in the St Patricks area have reported feeling tremors.

As a result, the alert level is now on yellow and sea users and ships have been warned to stay away from vicinity of the submarine volcano.

In light of the ongoing we are advising all sea users that the 5km (3.1 miles) exclusion zone of Kick em Jenny be strictly observed. The SRC has advised that heightened alert is necessary for the exclusion zone, the release added.

A yellow alert means the volcano is restless; seismicity and/or fumarolic activity are above the historical level or other unusual activity has been observed or can be expected without warning.

This article was posted in its entirety as received by stlucianewsonline.com. This media house does not correct any spelling or grammatical error within press releases and commentaries. The views expressed therein are not necessarily those of stlucianewsonline.com, its sponsors or advertisers.

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CARIBBEAN: Warnings issued as volcano near Grenada becomes restless - St. Lucia News Online (press release)

Christine Souffrant Ntim has made appearances with TEDx and the United Nations. (Courtesy of Christine Souffrant Ntim)

No one ever got anywhere by taking the easy road, and thats what led Haitian-American tech entrepreneur Christine Souffrant Ntimto achieve mountains of success.

At just 28 years old,Ntimhas received much recognition for tech achievements, which include establishing international vendor-to-consumer website Venedy, start-up company platform Global Startup Ecosystem and the upcoming Haitian Tech Summit. Forbes 30 Under 30, IBM Global Entrepreneur and the Haiti Changemakers 1804 List are just a few of the ways Ntim has been honored.

Ntim,who grew up street vending with her grandmother and mother, explained her interest in technology derived from her familys history of the occupation.

Each generation leveraged tech in a different way, she said. My grandmother used the radio to get information sources, goods and customers for selling her street food. My mom immigrated to New York and usedSMS to find out the best corner spots to lay out her blanket and sell handcrafted Haitian art across Manhattan, N.Y., and I learned how to code to build out the app forVendedy and Global Startup Ecosystem.

In December 2015, while she was pregnant, Ntim spent almost every waking momentlearning how to code after her venture capital teamdisbanded just before Christmas.

I was the only pregnant woman hanging at hacker groups across New York City coding with guys who have coded for years, Ntim said. I became obsessed. Sometimes, I would wake up at 6 a.m. coding and fall asleep coding.

By the third week, Ntim had createdVendedy, a social media site that connects customers from around the globe to street markets. It is the first app to host 500 street markets across 51 countries. Ntim made the transition to digital accelerator, an online method of educating heads of startup companies to be able to pitch their brands, aftergetting upset that someone she met at a startup event was shocked by her nationality.

I realized that it is not easy for entrepreneurs from emerging market countries like Haiti to just up and head to Silicon Valley to scale their company, she said.

Ntimlaunched a 3-day program on ways to hack product growth and had thousands of inquiries. That ultimately led her to host several other programs for entrepreneurs in the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

GSE launched in July as the first digital accelerator in the Caribbean.

Now, we accelerate 1000 to market each year across seven regions, Ntim said. And, now, other accelerators are doing the same.

GSE features seven other women partnering with Ntim on the venture, but she says that wasnt a consciousdecision.

Now, looking back on it, its important that this is highlighted because women are leading the tech ecosystems in all areas of the world but hardly get noticed for doing so, she said. Our success will surely spark conversation and challenge the tech bubble that only glorifies white young males as innovators of our time.

GSE was founded to provide entrepreneurs with the tools to have online success and Ntim and her husband, Einstein, wanted to extend that to theHaiti Tech Summit happening June 6-7. One hundred speakers from around the world will share with 1,000 ticket-holders how theyve used technology to change humanity.

My husband and I know the power of in-person gatherings and how seeing a country in its truest forms in person can transform biases about it, she said. So, we extended the mission of GSE to also build tech ecosystems in emerging markets for the next 13 years. The goal is to [have] Haiti spark a new perspective in the Caribbean, Ghana for Africa and so on.

Ntim said the announcement of the event at SXSW in March has already begun to transform the way Haiti is viewedworldwide.

The narrative of Haiti being a place of destruction, poverty and disasters[has] truly crippled the economy and local culture. This summit is already inspiring the Haitian people to demand better of mainstream narrative and is forcing people to come and see what Haiti truly has to offer, Ntim said.

She also recognizes the power that tech has throughout the African diaspora.

[My husband and I] are highly focused on empowering our communities to [learn] tech and entrepreneurship, she said. Tech makes a vision that would have taken a decade to be realized happen overnight.

Thats the power of tech and what we as a diaspora have at our disposal.

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This Entrepreneur Has Launched the First Digital Accelerator In the Caribbean - Atlanta Black Star

It was billed as a luxury music festival with high-end accommodations and top-notch food on a Caribbean island, but now attendees are scrambling to leave.

The Fyre Festival, which sold ticket packages starting at $1,500, is currently working to get people off the island and back to the US after ticketholders arrived to find an incomplete site and a chaotic scene.

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Attendees on social media described little to no staff, sparse food and water, and tents that resembled emergency camp sites.

An ad posted to Instagram promised the best in food, art, and music on an island once owned by Pablo Escobar, but the festival infrastructure was never completed, according to organizers. The band Blink-182, which was scheduled to perform, pulled out on Thursday.

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Were not confident that we would have what we need to give you the quality of performances we always give our fans, the band said on Twitter.

In a statement on its website, organizers said the event had been postponed due to circumstances out of our control.

The statement urged attendees not to make their own arrangements to get off the island.

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At this time, we are working tirelessly to get flights scheduled and get everyone off of Great Exuma and home safely as quickly as we can.

But guests described hours of waiting to depart the island.

Still on the same plane weve been on since 1:30 am, attendee William Finley IV said on Twitter around 6:00 a.m. this morning.

Attendees took to social media to describe the scene:

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The Fyre Festival in the Caribbean has turned into a disaster - The Boston Globe

The next time you ride the popular "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction at Disneyland, you may want to take a closer look at the animatronic pirates, one of them might just be actor Johnny Depp in the flesh.

To promote the upcoming "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" film, its Depp surprised Disneyland guests dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow on the popular "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride on April 26.

In a video posted Thursday, Depp can be seen stumbling around in character as the charismatic and intoxicated Sparrow.

Fans on the ride were quick to post even more videos on Twitter of Depp waving hello and staying in character.

Depp also entertained guests waiting in line on the facade of the ride.

As the fifth installment of Disney's swashbuckling saga, Depp returns as Sparrow, as do Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley in their roles as Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann.

Javier Bardem joins the cast as creepy Captain Salazar. The movie also features Kaya Scodelario, Brenton Thwaites, Kevin McNally and Geoffrey Rush.

Directed by Espen Sandberg and Joachim Ronning, "Dead Men Tell No Tales" shows a down-on-his-luck Sparrow running into trouble when deadly ghost sailors, led by the terrifying Captain Salazar (Bardem), escape from the Devil's Triangle bent on killing every pirate at sea including Jack. His only hope of survival lies in the legendary Trident of Poseidon, but he must team up with astronomer Carina Smyth (Scodelario) and Royal Navy sailor Henry (Thwaites).

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" is scheduled to open in theaters worldwide on May 26, 2017.

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Johnny Depp surprises fans on 'Pirates of the Caribbean' ride - CNET

April 27, 2017, 9:36 a.m.

Johnny Deppreturned to his swashbuckling wayson Wednesday, makinga guest appearance on the Pirates of the Caribbeanrideat the Disneyland Resort, much to fans' delight.

The attention-averting move happened to come as his former business managers accused him this week of being a "habitual liar." More on that in a sec.

Though there are three animatronic Jack Sparrows on the ride, Depp's in-the-flesh appearance and running conversations with boat riders was a welcome surprise to fans who shared it on social media.

The "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" star greeted riderson the attraction as his rum-swilling alter-ego, resplendent in Sparrow'seyeliner and dreadlocks, wielded a sword andrecited lines from the long-running movie franchise.

The 53-year-old's appearance came as theride celebrates its 50th anniversary andahead of the May 26 release date for the next "Pirates" installment. The new chapter sees the return of fan favorites Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley as Depp's ill-fortuned Sparrow pursues the legendary Trident of Poseidon in a race against bad guy Capt. Salazar, played by Javier Bardem.

Depp's outing also comes a day after hispublic battle with his former management company hit the radar again.

The actor and the Management Grouphave been embroiled in a disputeover his finances that resulted in the star filing a $25-million lawsuit in January alleging fraud, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and moreagainst his longtimebusiness managers. He claims they lost tens of millions of dollars over more than a decade.

The Management Group countersued in February, claiming thatDepp refused to reign in his "voracious spending."

Why didnt they drop me as a client if I was so out of control? Depp toldthe Wall Street Journal this week inhis first public comments on the matter since he filed the lawsuit.

On Tuesday, Management Group spokesman David Shane lobbed his rebuttal, claiming that the film star is a habitual liar who denies responsibility for his own outrageous conduct and has himself to blame for his financial woes.

Let's see how good Capt. Sparrow's sword is at deflecting bad publicity ...

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Amid legal brouhaha, Johnny Depp surprises fans on 'Pirates of the ... - Los Angeles Times