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Woman wanted over son's death in Tenerife
The Edinburgh mother wanted in Tenerife over the drug-related death of her young son has lost the final legal challenge against her extradition.
But Corinna Reid, 33, could well avoid prosecution since her partner, Robert Cormack, 38, who returned to Tenerife earlier this year where he is in prison, is attempting a plea bargain.
As regular readers of The Paper will recall, the death of her 16-month-old son, Aiden Cormack, occurred during a holiday in Tenerife in January 2007.
It is claimed that Cormack had been prescribed methadone and that because the couple was disorganised after moving rooms during their holiday here, Aiden apparently had been able to find the drug.
Ms Reid said she felt "sick, disgusted, horrified and angry" when she found out her son's death occurred after consuming the drugs.
Nevertheless, the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh has refused her appeal against the extradition.
The senior judge, Lord Nimmo Smith, has urged the Scottish and Spanish authorities to adopt a responsible attitude regarding sending Ms Reid, who also has an infant daughter, abroad.
He said, "It would be thoroughly undesirable if she was to be taken to Spain by virtue of the warrant only to be sent back home after a relatively short time with proceedings against her having been discontinued."
Ms Reid has fought moves to extradite her, claiming it would breach her right and that of her baby daughter, who is still under one-year-old, to private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Her counsel, Mungo Bovey QC, argued that to send her to Spain would break the bond between mother and daughter.
Bovey commented that a plea bargain of ‘accidental homicide’ could be in the offing with Cormack's case. He said that if the prosecutor agreed to it and would recommend a penalty of imprisonment for one to two years, acceptance of the plea bargain would be recommended to Mr Cormack.
He added that if the deal is made it could be possible that the judge in the case would drop the extradition order on Ms Reid.
Nonetheless, she still could be sent to Tenerife by mid-July.
Citizens Service Bureaux now up and running
The Tenerife Cabildo, through its Centro de Servicios al Ciudadano or Citizens Service Bureaux (CSC) in Icod de los Vinos, La Orotava and Los Cristianos, now has trained staff on hand to attend to the needs of foreign residents.
The service honours a pledge made by Cabildo president Ricardo Melchior to cater for the large number of foreign residents living on Tenerife. It means they will have access to Cabildo services without a translator/interpreter.
Rosa Baena, General Co-ordinator for Personnel and Legal Affairs at the Tenerife Cabildo, said, "We have hired these staff to make dealings with the Cabildo's office easier because their enquiries and business can now be handled in English or German."
Not only providing information about the different activities offered by the Tenerife Island Government, the new customer service staff will also take care of the standard procedures, which local residents have to follow to be entitled to the public services offered by the Cabildo and also the General Registry for receipt of documents.
In the north, the service will be available at the offices in La Orotava in Plaza de la Constitución number 4 on Wednesdays and Fridays and in Icod de los Vinos at Calle Key Múñoz number 24 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8am-2pm.
In the south the service is available from Mondays to Fridays from 8am-2pm at the CSC office in the Valdés Centre, Avenida Amsterdam in Los Cristianos.
The Citizens Service Bureau is a Cabildo one-stop service point for the public and forms part of a network of offices located around the island that all boast the latest information technology in an integrated system to guarantee quality of service.
The CSC gives citizens access to an improved service, with many kinds of Cabildo-related services dealt with under one roof. The aim is to make the Cabildo's public administration simpler and more user friendly for residents anywhere on the island, who now will not have to travel to Santa Cruz to take advantage of the services offered by the Island Corporation.
Thanks to this network of offices, local government is now more accessible for ordinary citizens in the most important population centres on Tenerife and it guarantees access to services under equal conditions.
The CSC offices are NOT tourist information offices.
Tenerife instrumental in Dakar Development Co-operation Conference
More than 100 representatives from donor and beneficiary countries, NGOs and supplier companies will meet at Dakar in Senegal from June 29th to July 1st , at the II International Conference and Exhibition of Development Co-operation, organised and financed by the governments of Spain, Senegal, Canary Islands and Tenerife.
The Dakar Conference is the biggest development co-operation event ever held in Africa attended by the three main players in the project - states, supplier companies and NGOs. Its main objective is to promote a new way of association, the PPPs (public-private partnerships).
PPPs are institutional relationships between states, companies and NGOs. Their main advantage over other ways of development co-operation strategies is that they diversify the aid supply to the beneficiary countries, so they can be more efficient.
The Dakar Conference will hold ten round tables where participants will expose and discuss some of their more efficient co-operation projects and will regard the possibility of creating PPPs from them. Workshops’ conclusions will be collected in a final common document, the Declaration of Dakar.
Spain will be represented, besides the state co-operation agencies, by more than 20 NGOs and ten private companies, such as Caritas, Economistas sin Fronteras (Economists Without Borders), Fundeso, Repsol, Tragsa o Cultivos y Tecnología Agraria de Tenerife (Cultesa). There will be also agencies, NGOs and companies from United States, China, France, Italy, Belgium, Monaco or Senegal, as well as representatives form ten African beneficiary countries.
The opening lecture, “Sustainable Development and A Third Industrial Revolution” will be given by the economist Jeremy Rifkin, advisor to many companies and governments, the government of Spain among them, and author of the best-seller The European Dream, or The Hydrogen Economy. He will present his proposals to face the triple threat of the global financial crisis, energy crisis and climate change.
The Dakar Conference 2009 is the continuation of the I International Conference for Co-operation, which took place in Tenerife in 2006.
Touch Down!
On Sunday, June 21st, Miami-Dade County officials were welcomed on the inaugural flight by Air Europa to Tenerife from Miami International Airport - the beginning of the only non-stop air service from Tenerife to a U.S. city.
The flight landed at Tenerife’s Los Rodeos North airport with a delegation of 35 people aboard.
Headed by Miami Dade County Commissioner Rebecca Sosa, the delegation was greeted with great enthusiasm by dignitaries, including Tenerife Cabildo President Ricardo Melchior.
The group has been visiting the Island and holding talks with politicians, representatives from the tourism industry and the business sector in the north and south.
Tenerife has shared a Sister Cities relationship with Miami-Dade County since 1993 and the Miami-Tenerife route was generated from a trade mission trip led by Commissioner Sosa, Honorary Chairperson of the Sister Cities Committee to Tenerife, in January 2008.
“As a result of long and difficult negotiations over the last 19 months, the inaugural flights between Miami-Dade County and Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, have resulted in the expansion of economic development opportunities for commerce and the strengthening of cultural diversity in our community,” said Commissioner Sosa.
“It is natural for Miami-Dade County, which serves as the capital of the Americas, and the Canary Islands that serve as the entryway and launching pad from the European Union to Africa, to reach this strategic alliance.
“Additionally, we are working with Tenerife Cabildo President Ricardo Melchior on expanding cargo trade routes and additional air travel services to the African continent that could result in more jobs and economic development during these difficult financial times.”
In a statement made recently to the Miami press, the Minister of Tourism for Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez said, “We have one of the most enjoyable climates and an extraordinary abundance of natural beauty because of our geographic location.
“We also pride ourselves in having all of the comforts a modern traveller requires, whether visiting Tenerife for business or pleasure.”
There were also some American journalists on the trip from U.S. media such as the Miami Herald. These writers have been lauding Tenerife in print over recent weeks with comments such as, “Searching for the next “hot-spot” destination? - With the launch of direct flights from Miami International Airport, a European Island paradise is just a few hours away. Tenerife, or more commonly known as The Island of Eternal Spring, is the largest of the Canary Islands, an archipelago that is one of Spain’s autonomous communities.”
The general consensus among the Island’s authorities, tourism sector and trade and industry is one of great optimism, seeing this link with the US as the beginning of a very fruitful friendship.
Skywatchers
As the cloud cover expanded from horizon to horizon, TSW’s Big Night Out almost didn’t happen, but at the last minute the clouds parted and we were presented with a dazzling spectacle of stars in a clear night sky.
Sky watchers from Belgium, Italy, Britain and the Canaries all gathered together to watch the skies for anything unusual. We saw a number of shooting stars, and a few satellites. We also saw a pulsing light heading west to east, which abruptly disappeared, and one of our sky watchers saw a pulsing light going east to west and moving very fast through special night vision binoculars.
Everyone had a great time and exchanged stories and email addresses. It was so successful that we will be holding our next night watch on July 19th, so if you would like to come along, please go to the website www.tenerifeskywatchers.com or telephone Ellie on 650-857-808 or Mike on 671-364-593.