MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News update

Headlines: Norwegian Sun marks the arrival of Falklands summer; Missing cocaine: Not guilty pleads Spanish fisherman; Chief of Police's conduct under investigation; Skype users low priority?; The week's cruise ships.

Norwegian Sunmarks the arrival of Falklands summer FIRST of the large cruise ships to visit the Falklands this season and scheduled also to be the last, was Norwegian Cruise Line's (NCL) Norwegian Sun, which was in Port William on Tuesday. At 78309 gross tons and 848 feet long, Norwegian Sun is the largest of the NCL ships to have visited the Falklands and her captain assured that he will never be bringing her in through the Narrows, as one of his predecessors did with the much shorter Norwegian Crown. For readers wanting to know more about life on the ocean wave, Penguin News' John Fowler went on board for a closer look on your behalf. (See page 4) Missing cocaine: Not guilty pleads Spanish fishermanROGELIO Curras Pastoriza, oneof the two Spanish fishermen police station, charged with importing cocaine into the Islands, appeared in court again on Wednesday to plead not guilty to this charge and to two separate charges of intent to pervert the course of justice and burglary, which had been laid against him in court earlier in the week. On Monday, Prosecuting Counsel, Elliott Taylforth had informed the court that the disappearance of 23 of the 29 bags of cocaine kept in a double-locked police cell had been discovered by the police on the preceding Tuesday, when there had been a need to take weapons from the armoury for training. Mr Taylforth explained that during the renovations and extension of the police station, as a temporary measure, the armoury had been moved to the cell where the seized cocaine was subsequently stored. During the night, the court was told, prisoners were allowed a degree of liberty, permitting access to the toilet and to a kitchen. The accused, it was alleged, had takenadvantage of this "freedom to roam" and had discovered the presence of the cocaine in a nearby cell. It was further alleged that by placing his hand through the "substantial gap" at the bottom of the cell door, Mr Curras Pastoriza had been able to draw the bags of cocaine towards him and remove them one by one, over a period of three or four days. This version of the events leading to the disappearance of 23 kilos of cocaine was the conclusion of the investigations carried out by the Royal Falkland Islands Police and the military Provost Marshall, said Mr Taylforth, who added that there was now no one else under investigation. In court on Wednesday, defence counsel for Mr Curras Pastoriza, Richard Marlor, argued that there was a possibility that the charge of burglary was already covered by the charge of perverting justice by the removal of evidence and told the court that he wished to receive advice from counsel in the UK, as to this possible duplicity, before advising his client on how to plead. After consultation with the prosecution counsel and some deliberation, Senior Magistrate, John Trevaskis said that it was the wish of the court that pleas should be taken. Mr Trevaskis was concerned that the adjournment to Wednesday's date had been granted in the expectation that pleas would be entered and advised that were the accused to enter pleas of not guilty, which subsequently he might wish to change, in the light of advice received on the possible duplicity argument, this could be done without prejudice or the loss of credit for an early guilty plea. After a brief consultation, with his defence counsel, Mr Curras Pastoriza pleaded not guilty to all of the three charges currently standing against him, namely importation of a banned substance without a licence, perverting the course of justice by destroying evidence and burglary. (More about the drugs case on pag 3) Chief of Police's conduct under investigationA DISCIPLINARY investigation into the conduct of Paul Elliott, the Chief Police Officer, has been initiated by the Government's Chief Executive, Tim Thorogood, this week, in connection with the recent incident involving the missing cocaine from the Police Station. Mr Thorogood said the investigation is an internal Falkland Islands Government process and will be led by Alison Thompson, a former Senior Magistrate on the Islands, who will be arriving at the end of the week. The purpose of the investigation is to ascertain the facts and to establish whether or not there are grounds for any formal disciplinary charges, said Mr Thorogood. "There are no grounds for suspending Mr Elliott who remains at work and in full command of the Police," he concluded. Skype users low priority? CABLE and Wireless customers have not been able to use the online communications system Skype efficiently over the last week and many claim that action has been taken by the company to at worst, block it, or at least, to give it a very low priority. Customer Services Manager Alison Thorogood said however, that Cable and Wireless are in the process of implementing an upgraded system to facilitate more efficient internet usage on the Islands: "For the customer this means that our valuable bandwidth capacity can be allocated intelligently, which at peak times is vital." Mrs Thorogood said that it has been established that more than 75% of the bandwidth is being used for surfing, yet customer experience is being eroded by other lower demand, higher bandwidth usage types such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and PeertPeer (P2P). "Under this new system we are able to intelligently allocate priority by different usage types. This does not mean that services are being removed, as allocation of bandwidth for all types of usage remains. However, it will mean that accessibility for some services will be more readily available during off peak times," she added. The company claims that the need to implement these policies is even more paramount as more Camp users are migrated to the new system and the need to balance customer experience in both Camp, Mount Pleasant Complex and Stanley. Continued on page 2 The week's cruise shipsThe Aleksey Maryshevis in Stanley today with a possible 48 passengers. Today, also, Akademik Shokalskiy,, with 48 passenger, will be at West Point and Carcass Island and in Stanley tomorrow, Saturday. Monday will see Marco Polo, 850 passengers, in Stanley and then on Tuesday it will be at West Point and New Island. Discovery(689 passengers) is at West Point on Wednesday and will be in Stanley on Thursday. Passenger numbers given are for the ship's capacity and may not be realised. Public holidays Monday December 8, is Battle Day. All Government Departments, other than those providing essential services, will be closed.