The Deputy Nita Deerpalsing spoke for a long time, on the bookies at Quatre-Bornes which, according to her, are reportedly disturbing social order. It was during the debates on Discours Programme of the government.

“It is unacceptable that the population are disturbed by irresponsible bookmakers. This is what has been stated by the member of the ruling majority during the debates on the Discours Programme which continued this Tuesday, May 15.

Nita Deerpalsing praised the government for its commitment to offer a better quality of life to Mauritians. That was when the member made a fierce outburst against the bookmakers who would, according to her, cause prejudice to the comfort of the population. She particularly referred to the situation of Quatre-Bornes , which is in her constituency.

“Each Saturday, it is hell. The inhabitants of Quatre-Bornes are unable to move easily because the bettors are invading the streets,” she said. She thus launched an appeal to the bookmakers to make necessary adjustments so that their customers are not forced to invade public spaces.

The Deputy did not fail to recall the campaign that she had carried out against the casino Ti-Vegas, leading to its closure at Quatre-Bornes . “I am willing to do the same thing against the bookmakers who disturb social order,” she says.
Previously, Nita Deerpalsing criticized the members of the opposition who decided not to participate in debates on the Discours Programme. She particularly rebuked the leader of the opposition, Paul Berenger, who, according to her, is a disgrace to Mauritius

She also highlighted that the press is an accomplice of the leader of the Mauritian militant movement. “Without the importance accorded to him by the press, Paul Berenger would have never survived,” she said.

One in two software in Mauritius has been installed without a license, indicates a global study of the Business Software Alliance, an international association representing the world of the software industry. This represents a rate of 57% of pirated software and a lack of profits estimated at USD 7 million in 2011.

The data of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) depicts that the piracy rate for Mauritius has declined steadily, from 61% in 2003 to 56% in 2010. It is thus the first time that a study of this international association signals a slight increase in the rate of piracy in the country. The study shows that a software on two installed last year are pirated versions.

This is the ninth study on software piracy in the world carried out by the BSA in partnership with IDC and Ipsos Public Affairs, two of the major global companies of independent research. In its 2011 edition, the association revealed that 57% of computers users, on a global scale, admit having purchased pirated software. 14% of users asserted that they hacked all the time or most of the time. 43% say that they do it from time to time or rarely.

The study shows that the rate of piracy in emerging markets surpass those of mature markets, 68% against 24% on average. The emerging markets are highly responsible of the overall increase in the loss of profit due to piracy. This helps in understanding the dynamics of market linked to the rate of piracy which is was at 42% globally in 2011, while the constant expansion of the emerging market has contributed to the increase in the shortfalls of profits connected to piracy to USD 63.4 billion.
The study of the BSA on software piracy worldwide also allows establishing that the software hackers are most regular and predominantly young men. The latter are also twice likely to live in an emerging country rather than a developed country (38 % against 15 %). The decision makers of the business world acknowledge software piracy more frequently than any other users – and they are more than two, likely to admit they buy software for one computer, and then install on additional machines in their offices. 20% of regular hackers in the mature markets – and 15% in the emerging markets – have claimed that the risk of being caught is a reason not to hack software.

Dale Waterman, Corporate Attorney for Anti-Piracy for the region Middle East and Africa at Microsoft, one of the members of the BSA commented that software piracy requires a prompt response from the authorities through education and intensive public awareness and enforcement activities where appropriate. “Our experience around the world suggested that when the government is actively involved in education and long-term prevention and takes appropriate enforcement measures to ensure that those who are involved in pirating, is punished by the law, the country then experience significant reductions in software piracy rate. It will be a benefit to the whole IT ecosystem in Mauritius,” said Dale Waterman.

The software producers globally are constantly highlight that software piracy has a dampening effect on innovation in the area of local ICT, creation of jobs and economic growth. The methodology of the study is to collect 182 entries of separate data and assess the trends in software and PC in 116 markets. This year’s study also included a survey of 15,000 computers users in 33 countries, which together constitute 82 % of the global PC market.

Viewers not subscribed to satellite channels may be very disappointed. They will be able to watch only eight live football matches on the MBC (Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation) for Euro 2012. This competition will take place in Poland and in Ukraine from June 8 to 1 July 2012.

This was stated by the Prime Minister, Navin Ramgoolam, at the National Assembly this Tuesday, May 15, while answering a question from a member of the MSM, Mahen Jugroo. The PM also explained that it is the only agreement that the MBC was able to obtain for the broadcasting of live Euro 2012 matches.

The eight games which will be broadcast live on the MBC include four of the forty-eight games at group stage, two of the four quarter-final, a match for the semi-finals and final.

Well, good news for football lovers who are not subscribed to the Canal Satellite Maurice or Parabole Maurice, you will be able to watch most of matches on Mopays.com. There will be a special section to watch the matches online.

The 65th edition of the Cannes Festival will be held from Wednesday, May 16 to Sunday, may 27, 2012.
This year, fifteen films are competing for the Palme d’or.
My.T. offers you the possibility to watch live the great moments of this prestigious event on the 4th channel.

Competing Movies

Abigail directed by Matthew James Reilly
Derrière moi les oliviers (Behind me olive trees) directed by Pascale Abou Jamra

Doroga na (The road to) directed by Taisia Igumentseva

Head over heels directed by Timothy Reckart

Les ravissements (The Raptures) réalisé par Arthur cahn

Los Anfitriones (The Hosts) directed by Miguel Angel Moulet

Matteus directed by Leni Huyghe

Pude ver un puma (Could see a puma) directed by Eduardo Williams

Resen (Dog Leash) directed by Eti Tsicko

Riyoushi (The barber) directed by Shoichi Akino
Slug invasion directed by Morten Helgeland, Casper Wermuth

Tabara Din Razoare (The camp in Razoare) directed by Cristi Iftime

Tambylles directed by Michal Hogenauer

Terra (land) directed by Piero Messina

The ballad of finn + yeti directed by Meryl O´connor

The Jury

President: Jean-Pierre Dardenne

Members:

Karim Ainouz

Emmanuel Carrere –Writer

Arsinée Khanjian – Actor

Yu Lik Wai – Director

The good performance of Mauritius Island continues in the African continent.
This year, once again, the Mauritian flag rose high at the tourism and travel fair, INDABA.
Each year, all the stands exposed at the fair, are judged according to their level and standards in various categories, including lodging, tourism operators, transport and the position of the countries within SADC.
Mauritius obtained the Gold Award in the category of SADC countries, at this fair which was held from 12 to May 15, 2012, in Durban, South Africa.
Mauritius shared the podium with Mozambique, which was awarded the Platinum Award, and the Classic Safari Camps of Africa which, received the Silver Award.
For the INDABA 2012, the MTPA has benefited from a larger stand, compared to the previous year, a total area of 132 square meters. The stand of Mauritius island comprises 19 Mauritians operators, including AHRIM, the association of luxurious hotels and tour operators association.
The hotel groups which were also present are: Maritim Hotel, Anahita Resort, Silver Beach, Oberoi, Movenpick, Attitude Resorts, Sofitel, One&Only Le Saint Geran, InterContinental, LUX, St Regis, Sand Resorts & Spa and Maradiva.
White Sand Tours, Solis, Maurtourco and Mauritours also attended this prestigious fair.

“I am proud to learn that La Pirogue is, once again this year, the only Mauritian hotel to have won a ‘Holly Award’ by TUI. Hats off to the great team of La Pirogue and members of its management. We also thank the office of Sun Resorts based in Germany, for their support, “said Arnaud Martin, Chief Marketing Manager of Sun Resorts.

“I am pleased that TUI, one of the largest tour operators in the world, has rewarded our hotel. It is a way for the clients of TUI to thank La Pirogue for their warm welcome. The efforts made to position our hotel as a perfect choice for travel professionals to Mauritius have been successful,” estimated Alessandro Cabella, General Director of La Pirogue.

“You have made the holidays of our clients memorable. Excellent service and unparalleled comfort are essential factors for their well-being. In addition, the challenges of the environment and security also play a huge role in helping travellers to make their choice for their holiday and in the allocation of Holly Awards,” write Dr. Volker Böttcher, CEO of TUI Germany, and the Dr. Oliver Dörschuck, Head of Tourism for short and long holidays of TUI Germany, to the Director General of La Pirogue.

Each year, more than half a million German travellers – customers of TUI – vote the 100 best hotels in the world among nearly 15,000 establishments. In 2011, La Pirogue won the same award. In 2010, the hotel had already won a Holly Award and was included in the list of 100 best hotels. In September 2008, La Pirogue had also won the title of ‘Best International Hotel in the world’ awarded by TUI.

The US state of Texas is likely to have executed an innocent man due to careless handling of the case, a report by US law students claims.

Carlos de Luna was killed by lethal injection in 1989 for the brutal murder of a single mother six years earlier.

Right up until his execution, de Luna maintained a fellow Hispanic called Carlos Hernandez was the real culprit.

The Columbia University report backs his claim. It says “shoddy police work” probably led to the wrong man dying.

Under the supervision of Professor James Liebman, 12 students spent five years painstakingly dissecting the 1983 murder of Wanda Lopez in the Texan city of Corpus Christi. The petrol station clerk was stabbed in the chest with a lock-blade buck knife.

The students combed through endless police files and crime scene footage, and interviewed more than 100 witnesses, including detectives who had worked on the case.
‘I know who did it’

The result is a 436-page book entitled Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution, which, according to Professor Liebman, reveals an “emblematic” failure of the legal system.

It looked like a common case, but we found that there was a very serious claim of innocence,” said Prof Liebman.

The study details how 40 minutes after Lopez’s murder, officers found de Luna hiding underneath a pick-up truck near the crime scene and arrested him.

He was charged with capital murder despite contradictory eyewitness accounts – the killer was seen fleeing towards the north, while de Luna was caught in the east – and the absence of blood on his clothing.

The law students also found that police had failed to test the murder weapon and victim’s nails for blood and tissue samples.

Most importantly, investigators ignored de Luna’s insistence that the real perpetrator was another Hispanic man known as Carlos Hernandez.

“I didn’t do it, but I know who did,” de Luna is quoted in the study as repeatedly saying, adding that he saw Hernandez entering the service station.
‘Spitting image’

At the trial, the prosecution dismissed Hernandez as a “phantom” of the defendant’s imagination. The Columbia study, however, confirms Hernandez was a well-known dangerous criminal.

“Carlos Hernandez was always involved in violent crimes, and his weapon of choice was the knife,” retired Corpus Christi detective Eddie Garza said in a video testimonial included in the report.

“My informants told me Hernandez had got someone else to take the fall [for Lopez's murder]. I contacted the detective in charge of the case. He said they had enough evidence linking Carlos de Luna to the crime so I backed away from it.”

In essence, de Luna was executed because he looked the “spitting image” of the actual killer and officers handled the case with “nonchalance”, said Prof Liebman.

“Everything that could go wrong in a death penalty case did go wrong for de Luna.

“Sadly, his story is not unique. The same factors that sent de Luna to his death – faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation, and prosecutorial misfeasance – continue to put innocent people at risk of execution today.”

Carlos Hernandez died of natural causes in a Texas prison in May 1999, having been jailed for assaulting a neighbour with a 9in (23cm) knife.

A war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic is to resume, with the prosecution focusing on the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.

Gen Mladic is accused of orchestrating the killings of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim boys and men in the town.

In all, the 70-year-old faces 11 charges, including genocide, during the brutal 1992-95 Bosnian war.

He calls the claims “monstrous”, and the court in The Hague has entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

The Srebrenica massacre was the worst atrocity in Europe since the end of World War II.

Serb fighters overran the enclave in eastern Bosnia – supposedly under the protection of Dutch UN peacekeepers. Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys were separated off, shot dead and bulldozed into mass graves – later to be dug up and reburied in more remote spots.

Gen Mladic is also charged in connection with the 44-month siege of Sarajevo during which more than 10,000 people died.

‘Criminal endeavour’
On the first day of the trial on Wednesday, the prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) argued that Gen Mladic intended to “ethnically cleanse” Bosnia.

It opened the hearing with an audio-visual presentation laying out the case.

Prosecuting counsel Dermot Groome said they would prove Gen Mladic’s hand in the crimes.

“Four days ago marked two decades since Ratko Mladic became the commander of the main staff of the army of Republika Srpska – the VRS,” he said.

Mr Groome said that by the time Gen Mladic and his troops had “murdered thousands in Srebrenica”, they were “well-rehearsed in the craft of murder”.

He then showed judges video of the aftermath of a notorious shelling of a market in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, in which dozens of people died.

Mr Groome said there was “no doubt” that Gen Mladic had controlled the shelling of Sarajevo. He had promised that the city would shake, the prosecutor said.

Mr Groome said the attacks were part of an “overarching” plan to ethnically cleanse non-Serbs from parts of Bosnia.

He said crimes of sexual violence had played an integral part of the process of “taking over and ethnically cleansing Bosnia”.

The prosecution also highlighted the role of snipers in Sarajevo, showing images of a child shot dead on a street and pictures taken from sniper nests overlooking the besieged city.

Prosecution ‘errors’
During the proceedings, members of the Mothers of Srebrenica group held a vigil outside the court.

Judicial authorities have rejected defence calls to delay proceedings, most recently a petition to have Dutch Judge Orie replaced on grounds of alleged bias.

However, even as the trial began, there were further indications it would be delayed.

Judge Orie said the court was considering postponing the presentation of evidence – due to start on 29 May – due to “errors” by the prosecution in disclosing evidence to the defence.

Mr Groome said he would not oppose a “reasonable adjournment”.

Gen Mladic spent 15 years on the run before being apprehended by Serb forces last May and sent to The Hague.

The number of crimes of which he stands accused has been almost halved to speed up his trial.

‘Our hero’
Gen Mladic is accused of committing genocide and other crimes against Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Bosnian Croats in a campaign of ethnic cleansing that began in 1992 and climaxed in Srebrenica.

Pre-trial hearings have been characterised by ill-tempered outbursts from Gen Mladic, who has heckled the judge and interrupted proceedings.

“The whole world knows who I am,” he said at a hearing last year.

“I am General Ratko Mladic. I defended my people, my country… now I am defending myself.”

The case has stirred up strong emotions among watching survivors, with some shouting “murderer” and “killer” from the court gallery.

However, while Gen Mladic’s critics consider him a butcher, to some Serbs he is a national hero.

Gen Mladic suffered at least one stroke while in hiding and remains in frail health.

The architect of the Balkan wars, former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, died in detention in his cell in 2006, before receiving a verdict.

Student protesters have stormed a university in Montreal, disrupting classes the day they were due to resume, Canadian media has reported.

The activists, many wearing masks, arrived as classes were starting at the University of Quebec.

The university had obtained a court injunction allowing law students to resume classes amid an ongoing strike.

The stand-off between student groups and the provincial government over rising tuition fees began 14 weeks ago.

Chanting demonstrators marched through the halls of the university, CBC reported, while professors left their classrooms, effectively cancelling classes.

They carried drums and whistles and used a schedule to find classes in progress. In one classroom, protesters began flicking the lights on and off, shouting at the group inside.

Reports say that some male protesters took two female students by the arm and told them to get out.

CBC said the protesters numbered in the hundreds, although other reports said the figure was lower.

The association of law students is among the student groups continuing to boycott classes in protest against rising tuition fees, but some students wanted to restart classes.

So far, the university has not asked police to intervene.

More student protests are expected to take place in Montreal on Wednesday.

Japan’s economy grew 1.0% between January and March compared with the previous three months, as government spending helped fuel a gradual recovery from last year’s earthquake and tsunami.

That translates to annualised growth of 4.1%, the Cabinet Office said.

A recovery in private consumption has also helped boost the economy.

However, analysts were still cautious about the future, as growth slowed in the US, Europe and China.

Reconstruction spending
“The data does not change the outlook for the economy,” said Takeshi Minami, from Norinchukin Research Institute in Tokyo.

“Consumer spending is proving robust but the key to sustainability for the economic recovery is whether or not exports regain strength.”

The main drivers of growth were public investment and consumer spending, which analysts said were helped by extra budgets after the earthquake.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has pledged more than 20tn yen ($249bn; £156bn) on reconstruction.

“With government polices behind the quarterly growth, we can’t say this is a reflection of real strength in the Japanese economy,” said Yoshimasa Maruyama from Itochu Economic Research Institute in Tokyo.

Outpaced
The expansion in Japan, however, exceeded that of many major industrial nations. The US reported 2.2% annualised growth in the same three months.

Japan also outperformed Germany, Britain and France.

Martin Schultz from Fujitsu Research said the data out on Thursday had made him very optimistic for the year.

“We did know there is a huge amount of money for reconstruction but we didn’t know how positive the impact is. We know now this is a positive,” he said.