High temp today: 95F 34C°F
Low temp tonight: 79°F 26°C°F

General Forecast: Mostly sunny, hot and humid conditions with a few scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms, turning fair and humid tonight with a few scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms. An area of high pressure continues to dominate the weather over The Bahamas generating sunny, hot and humid conditions across the islands.

Boaters: Small craft should be alert for gusty winds and higher seas in or near heavy showers and thunderstorms

Winds: Light and variable at 10 knots or less in the northwest Bahamas and east to southeast at 10-15 knots in the central and southeast Bahamas

Seas: 3 feet or less in the northwest Bahamas and 2-4 feet in the central and Southeast Bahamas

Sunset: 8.02 pmpm
Sunrise: 6.20 am am
Click here to check a past or future Bahamas sunrise/sunset times.

Moonrise: 12.44 pm  

Moonset: 12.58 am Saturday  

Low tide: 7.25 am
High tide: 1.39 pm
Click here to check a past or future Nassau Tidal times.

Tropical weather outlook

A strong tropical wave approaching the Leeward Islands is producing an area of showers and thunderstorms and is being watched for possible signs of development. There is a low chance of 20 percent of this system becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours. Elsewhere, tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 48 hours

Extended Forecast Saturday

Weather: A ridge of high pressure will remain across the islands maintaining hot and humid conditions around the islands over the next few days... Mostly sunny, hot and humid conditions with a few scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms, turning fair and humid at night with a few scattered showers and possible isolated thunderstorms

Winds: Light and variable at 10 knots or less in the northwest Bahamas and east-northeast to east-southeast at 15-20 knots in the central and southeast Bahamas

Seas: 3 feet or less in the northwest Bahamas and 4-6 feet in the central and southeast Bahamas

Sunday

Weather: 3 feet or less in the northwest Bahamas and 4-6 feet in the central and southeast Bahamas Partly sunny to partly cloudy, hot and humid conditions with a few scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms, turning fair and humid at night with a few scattered showers and a possible isolated thunderstorm

Winds: East-northeast to east-southeast at 10-15 knots in the northwest Bahamas and east-northeast to east-southeast at 15-20 knots in the central and southeast Bahamas

Seas: 2-4 feet in the northwest Bahamas and 4-6 feet in the central and southeast Bahamas


Source: Bahamas Department of Meteorology

Paul Shultz was walking along the pier of a Key West marina when he saw what looked like a rotting tomato pounding against the rocks.

The Coast Guard investigator waded ankle-deep into the water to fish out the ocean rubbish: a bright red Nikon camera, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. Its waterproof plastic case was covered with six months' worth of crusty sea growth, but the camera itself was almost pristine when he found it May 16.

However, clues to tracking down its owner were few. So Shultz decided to test his investigative skills.

There were photos of two men preparing to scuba dive and a towheaded family nestled together on a couch. There was a mysterious relic settled deep into the sea floor. And even a puzzling video clip of splashing water that appeared to have been taken as the camera thrashed around under the control of something that wasn't human. Photo: Paul Shultz holds a camera and underwater housing that he recovered washed up at a marina in Key West, Fla. Lost in Aruba six months ago, Shultz was able to locate its owners.

"There was nothing on the pictures that said this camera belongs to so and so," Shultz said.

'Aquahound' After looking through the pictures, Shultz adopted the screen name of "Aquahound" and took his hunt online.

He uploaded the images on Scubaboard.com, hoping some diving aficionados could help identify where they were taken. Within days, the Internet sleuths had parsed the pictures and found some clues all pointing to Aruba, a Dutch island off Venezuela's coast that's 1,100 miles from Key West.

There was a plane's tail number — and a computer search showed the aircraft was in Aruba the day the photo was taken. There was a blue-roofed building that searchers pinpointed to the island using Google Earth. And there was a school poster written in Dutch.

But could the camera make such a trip? Villy Kourafalou, an associate professor of physical oceanography at the University of Miami, said such an odyssey is possible. The buoyancy of the plastic case combined with various currents could have taken the camera to Key West, she told The Associated Press in an e-mail.

With Shultz's search narrowed, the resolution came quickly. He posted the pictures on the travel websites Cruisecritic and Aruba.com, and within two days was contacted by an Aruban woman who said she recognized the children in some of the photos as classmates of her son.

She contacted the family, the de Bruins, and all the pieces came together.

'Can't stop laughing' "I have a smile on my face ... I can't stop laughing about it," Dick de Bruin said in a phone interview from Aruba. "It's really big news (on the island) and in Europe."

De Bruin, a sergeant in the Royal Dutch Navy, has been stationed with his family in Aruba for three years. The camera floated away from de Bruin while he and a dive team were salvaging an anchor from the USS Powell for a World War II memorial. The American ship protected Aruba, a major oil producer, from German forces during the war.

"There's a big connection between America and Aruba ... first with the anchor, and now the camera brings us together again," de Bruin said.

The camera is on its way to the de Bruin family via FedEx and should be there any day.

Shultz said he's thrilled the story is ending well — for a brief moment when he first viewed the mystery video, he feared the camera's owner had met a tragic end.

There was footage of the divers recovering the anchor, and then in the next video, "the camera started thrashing around and a fin came into the picture," Shultz said. "Then 20 seconds in I realized there was no blood."

The culprit: a hungry sea turtle trying to take a bite out of the floating camera in January, two months after it was lost. The camera's leash apparently got caught on its flipper, and the animal's splashing turned on the video camera. Shultz's best guess is that the episode happened off the coast of Honduras.

That video clip has been seen more than 200,000 times on YouTube, with viewers everywhere from Alaska to Africa to Australia. It's de Bruin's favorite part of the whole story.

"When I told people what Paul had done, they were astonished. They didn't believe it," he said. "But we have the sea turtle on film proving the camera floated from Aruba to the U.S. It's unbelievable, but it's true."

Click here to read more in MSNBC

NASSAU, The Bahamas - The Commonwealth of the Bahamas and Canada signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement, adding to an already established cooperation, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs the Hon Brent Symonette.

Signatories to the TIEA were Mr Symonette and His Excellency Stephen Hallihan, High Commissioner for Canada to The Bahamas, in a ceremony on Thursday, June 17, 2010 at the House of Assembly Majority Room.

It was the 22nd signed by The Bahamas; 16 with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries and nine with members of the G-20 countries.

“The Government of The Bahamas is satisfied that its expanding network for tax information exchange proves The Bahamas’ ability to benefit from the changing global regulatory environment and to enjoy continued growth in its international business industry,” Mr. Symonette said.

He said that the government welcomes the conclusion of TIEA agreement with Canada, a fellow Commonwealth country and member of the OECD Global Forum. He thanked the Canadian negotiators for completing the negotiations in a collaborative and cooperative manner.

The Bahamas, he said, takes particular note of its longstanding economic links Canada stemming back over a century, which has provided mutual benefits for both countries, particularly in financial services and the hospitality sectors.

“The Bahamas has also enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Canada in the area of judicial cooperation in respect of cross-border criminal activity, under our Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which has been in place since the late 1990s.

“The TIEA between our two countries provides an important complementary addition to an already established, robust base of cooperation,” he said.

Once the agreement enters into force, it will extend exempt surplus treatment to dividends paid to a Canadian parent corporation by its foreign affiliates resident and carrying on business in The Bahamas, allowing such dividends to be exempted from tax in Canada.

“The Bahamas looks forward to the continued expansion of its economic relationship with Canada, as nations committed to the effective implementation of accepted international standards for financial regulation and cross-border cooperation; and from this new base forge even stronger links within the scope of the new global financial norms,” Mr. Symonette said.

High Commissioner Hallihan said that these agreements are an important part of a commitment that has been made to many countries around the world, to bring about transparency and effectiveness to international financial systems and to tax regimes which cross borders.

“In that regard, Canada is very pleased to be signing this exchange agreement with The Government of The Bahamas. It will, quite simply, make our taxation regimes more transparent, more effective and it will allow both countries to actually more effectively implement the tax systems that we have in place,” he said.

“It also sends a very a powerful signal to other communities that responsible governments such as the one here and in our Canada, insist on due diligence being undertaken when it comes to issues of taxation and financial regulations.”

The High Commissioner said that it is also just another sign of how strong the relationship is between Canada and The Bahamas, regarded as one of its strongest partners in the regions.
 
The Bahamas has signed Tax Information Exchange Agreements with the United States of America, Principality of Monaco, Republic of San Marino, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and People’s Republic of China, Argentina, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Mexico, Denmark, The Faroes, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Australia, and Germany.

Alleged military involvement in human trafficking, an investigation into suspected prostitution among girls in Eleuthera and the government's reported minimal response to address human trafficking were just some of the issues that were highlighted in the "2010 Trafficking in Persons Report" completed by the US State Department.

"Anecdotal reports indicate that during 2009 some military personnel may have been involved in assisting with the illegal entry of trafficking victims into The Bahamas," said the report released yesterday.

However, the reported added that "there is no evidence of government involvement in or tolerance of trafficking."

Asked yesterday if he had any information on military involvement in trafficking, Minister of Foreign Affairs Brent Symonette said he had none.

"We raised the issue that we are very surprised that type of wording would be used in a release of this case," he said during a news conference yesterday at his West Bay Street office. "It's a very serious issue and I would imagine that if you have evidence you rely on the evidence and not anecdotal. It raised the question of grave concern for us."

The report lists The Bahamas as a 'tier two' country — a category for countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act's (TPVA) minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

The other two tiers are countries that are compliant with the minimum standards, and countries that are not making any efforts to comply with the standards.

The report said the government has made minimal efforts to protect victims against trafficking but no visible effort to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.

"The Bahamas is a destination country for men and some women from Haiti and other Caribbean countries who are subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor, and, to a lesser extent, women from Jamaica and other countries who are in forced prostitution," the report said.

"Haitian trafficking victims are most likely to migrate to The Bahamas voluntarily, but subsequently be subjected to forced labor in agriculture, domestic service, or forced prostitution. Some employers coerce migrant workers — legal and illegal — to work longer hours, at lower pay, and in conditions not permitted under local labor law by changing the terms of employment contracts, withholding travel documents, refusing transportation back home, threatening to withdraw the employer-specific and employer-held permits, or threatening to have the employee deported through other means."

According to the report, traffickers reportedly lure Jamaican and other foreign women to The Bahamas with offers of employment in the tourism and entertainment fields and subject the women to forced prostitution after their arrival.

Click here to read more in The Nassau Guardian