HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC -- A Bermuda Regiment soldier absent without leave for seven years has been heavily fined after being caught on his return home from overseas, authorities said.
The unnamed soldier -- one of around 100 men who have dodged their regiment duty -- was detained at the L.F. Wade International Airport when he recently returned to the island after an extended stay abroad.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC – Many people including tourists were left stranded Tuesday after unionised government staff downed tools to attend a meeting to discuss a new employment contract, disrupting bus and ferry service for several hours. The workers gathered at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, for the meeting which was called by Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU) president Chris Furbert. Media reports suggested that, in order to cut its huge wage bill, government has proposed a reduction in working hours and staff have been asked to take one day off, unpaid, each month.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC -- Bermuda, Britain's most populous Overseas Territory (OT), is to get a female Deputy Governor who has served in the Pitcairn Islands, Britain's smallest OT, Government House announced on Thursday.
Governor George Fergusson announced career diplomat Ginny Silva will replace current Deputy Governor David Arkley in December.
Silva joined the Diplomatic Service in 1987 having worked previously for Leicestershire County Council and the UK Immigration Service.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC -- The six-month-old One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) government has been accused of "sheer hardheadedness" by an independent legislator after it lost three votes in the last two parliamentary sittings. Former leader of the now defunct United Bermuda Party (UBP), Kim Swan, says government’s losing streak in the House of Assembly is a sign of a “lame duck” administration in a “precarious position”.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC -- Finance Minister Bob Richards announced on Thursday that his One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) government is to borrow up to US$800 million to cover budget deficits for the next three years.
Richards told the media that borrowing for the medium term in the current low interest rate environment would save the taxpayer millions of dollars in financing costs.
"We judge that we are in the last phase of the ultra low US dollar interest rate cycle," Richards said.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC - Premier Craig Cannonier has ruled out gay marriage in Bermuda, declaring “under my leadership, that will not happen”.
Cannonier, 50, who came to office in December, praised lawmakers for backing an amendment to human rights law in the House of Assembly last Friday which extended basic anti-discrimination protection to gay people.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC - Health Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin says 70 per cent of Bermuda's adult population is overweight or obese and the island is counting the cost of additional strains being put on a struggling economy.
Gordon-Pamplin, who has just returned from a meeting of health ministers in Aruba on the impact of childhood obesity, said that Bermuda’s population will face chronic health issues from preventable, non-communicable diseases.
“The proportion of children who are overweight or obese has been growing,” she told legislators."
An international deal to crack down on secretive tax havens is in jeopardy after the British Crown Territory of Bermuda refused to sign up to new transparency rules. Tax avoidance had been placed top of the agenda for the G8 summit of world leaders meeting next week in Northern Ireland, and David Cameron has called Britain’s 10 overseas territories and crown dependencies to talks on the topic in London this Saturday.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC -- Bermuda and other British Overseas Territories (OTs) -- including five Caribbean islands -- have been summoned to a London summit this month as Prime Minister David Cameron seeks more transparency to end what he calls the “scourge of tax evasion”. Cameron has warned Britain's OTs and Crown dependencies that he has made tax avoidance a priority of the G8 summit, which he is to host in Northern Ireland on June 17 and 18.
(Reuters) - Bermuda is not to blame for companies such as Google using Bermudan subsidiaries to shelter billions of dollars from U.S. and European tax authorities, the territory's finance minister said on Monday. Google has come under fire from British lawmakers for channelling billions of dollars a year through an Irish subsidiary to a Dutch sister company which then passes the money to another affiliate in Bermuda. The use of such complex structures is common among multinationals, including Apple and Amazon, and has become a hot political topic on both sides of the Atlantic.