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Parliamentary standards authorities are set to investigate whether a former Conservative minister who sits as a peer while simultaneously lobbying on behalf of a Caribbean tax haven has broken House of Lord rules.

Labour yesterday wrote to the Independent Commissioner for Standards asking him to investigate whether Lord Blencathra had breached regulations designed to stop lords taking on paid advocacy roles which could interfere with their job as legislators.

The intervention is likely to trigger a full inquiry which if it finds he has broken the rules could result in Lord Blencathra being censured. The move follows an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Independent, which revealed that the Conservative peer had lobbied on behalf of the Cayman Islands while claiming thousands of pounds in House of Lords attendance allowances.

In the six months since he was appointed by the islands' Government, he has lobbied George Osborne to reduce the burden of air passenger transport taxes on the Caymans, facilitated an all-expenses-paid trip for three senior MPs over the Easter recess, and intervened over an Early Day Motion in the Commons calling for the Caymans to be closed down as a tax haven. Last night Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West, accused the Tory peer of abusing the system and said he would refer him to the Committee for Standards in Public Life.

Guidance on the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Lords says they may not accept payment in return for parliamentary services. This includes a ban on peers "making use of their position to arrange meetings with a view to any person lobbying Members of either House, ministers or officials". When asked whether he thought he had breached the Code, Lord Blencathra, formerly known as David Maclean, said: "You have confused lobbying Parliament, which I do not do, with lobbying the Government which I do. I am very clear that if there was a measure before The House of Lords on any matter relating to the Cayman Islands then I would not lobby Lords on it nor speak nor vote on it."

Mr Flynn, a member of the Constitutional Reform Select Committee, said the response was "extraordinary". "I was mystified by Lord Blencathra's concept of a distinction between Parliament and Government when it comes to the prohibition on paid lobbying this is an entirely novel excuse for abusing the system," he said.

The President of the Liberal Democrats has also attacked the peer's activities. Tim Farron said: "With all the controversy surrounding lobbying and tax at the moment, it's astonishing that a Tory peer is now the lead advocate in Britain for one of the world's biggest tax havens. If Lord Blencathra is using his very privileged position in the House of Lords to lobby for a government that wants to see money that should be for our schools, hospitals and our armed forces sailing off in luxury yachts to be stored on the Cayman Islands, it is yet another mockery of the Parliamentary system, and reinforces a need for an elected upper chamber."

Jon Trickett, Shadow Cabinet Office minister, welcomed the call to investigate Lord Blencathra. "It is clear that an investigation into any impropriety is urgently needed. There needs to be clarity over whether the nature of Lord Blencathra's dual role, as both a parliamentarian and lobbyist, has breached the Lords Code of Conduct.

"With almost daily revelations of Tory sleaze along with a significantly watered down consultation paper on lobbying it is clear this Government is unwilling to make bold decisions in the national interest but rather maintain the influence of a small circle of elites."

http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/

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Watchdog set to investigate Lord Blencathra over lobbying for Cayman Islands

Parliamentary standards authorities are set to investigate whether a former Conservative minister who sits as a peer while simultaneously lobbying on behalf of a Caribbean tax haven has broken House of Lord rules.

Labour yesterday wrote to the Independent Commissioner for Standards asking him to investigate whether Lord Blencathra had breached regulations designed to stop lords taking on paid advocacy roles which could interfere with their job as legislators.

The intervention is likely to trigger a full inquiry which if it finds he has broken the rules could result in Lord Blencathra being censured. The move follows an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Independent, which revealed that the Conservative peer had lobbied on behalf of the Cayman Islands while claiming thousands of pounds in House of Lords attendance allowances.

In the six months since he was appointed by the islands' Government, he has lobbied George Osborne to reduce the burden of air passenger transport taxes on the Caymans, facilitated an all-expenses-paid trip for three senior MPs over the Easter recess, and intervened over an Early Day Motion in the Commons calling for the Caymans to be closed down as a tax haven. Last night Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West, accused the Tory peer of abusing the system and said he would refer him to the Committee for Standards in Public Life.

Guidance on the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Lords says they may not accept payment in return for parliamentary services. This includes a ban on peers "making use of their position to arrange meetings with a view to any person lobbying Members of either House, ministers or officials". When asked whether he thought he had breached the Code, Lord Blencathra, formerly known as David Maclean, said: "You have confused lobbying Parliament, which I do not do, with lobbying the Government which I do. I am very clear that if there was a measure before The House of Lords on any matter relating to the Cayman Islands then I would not lobby Lords on it nor speak nor vote on it."

Mr Flynn, a member of the Constitutional Reform Select Committee, said the response was "extraordinary". "I was mystified by Lord Blencathra's concept of a distinction between Parliament and Government when it comes to the prohibition on paid lobbying this is an entirely novel excuse for abusing the system," he said.

The President of the Liberal Democrats has also attacked the peer's activities. Tim Farron said: "With all the controversy surrounding lobbying and tax at the moment, it's astonishing that a Tory peer is now the lead advocate in Britain for one of the world's biggest tax havens. If Lord Blencathra is using his very privileged position in the House of Lords to lobby for a government that wants to see money that should be for our schools, hospitals and our armed forces sailing off in luxury yachts to be stored on the Cayman Islands, it is yet another mockery of the Parliamentary system, and reinforces a need for an elected upper chamber."

Jon Trickett, Shadow Cabinet Office minister, welcomed the call to investigate Lord Blencathra. "It is clear that an investigation into any impropriety is urgently needed. There needs to be clarity over whether the nature of Lord Blencathra's dual role, as both a parliamentarian and lobbyist, has breached the Lords Code of Conduct.

"With almost daily revelations of Tory sleaze along with a significantly watered down consultation paper on lobbying it is clear this Government is unwilling to make bold decisions in the national interest but rather maintain the influence of a small circle of elites."

http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/

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Watchdog set to investigate peer over lobbying for Cayman Islands

MalSec's "friendly" defacement of The Security Centre's website points out the need to beef up web security.

A Cayman Islands security firm got a bit of unsolicited web security advice on March 30 from MalSec, a group of "malicious security" hackers who recently broke into a server belonging to the Nigerian Senate. But unlike some of the nastier site defacements done recently by members of Anonymous' #AntiSec collectiveincluding takedowns of two Federal Trade Commission sitesthe MalSec hackers left the site itself intact, posting only a replacement home page to advise the company, The Security Centre Ltd., of their vulnerability.

The hackers posted a new index.htm home page on Security Centre's site to override their PHP-powered site maintained by web design firm NetClues, which proclaims Security Centre "Cayman's premeir full-service provider of security services and systems."

"Whilst no harm was done to the original site," the hackers wrote on their replacement home page, "we urge you to secure your site before claiming to be 'the best of the best' in any kind of security. We were not firsttraces of previous security breaches were found." The page gave instructions on how to return the site to normal, and advised the company to "please oversee your security before somebody else with more harmful intent does. You can thank us later <3."

In a Twitter post attributed to MalSec, the group pointed to the defacement, and wrote "We aren't just madhakkars with no souls! That's for the gingerhackers. We see a hole we fix it. unless urlame." After claiming responsibility for a hack of a server belonging to the Nigerian Senate, the groupposted a file alleged to include the hashed passwords of senators and cracked passwords of the lawyers that work with them.

Ars Technica attempted to contact Security Centre about the defacement on Saturday by e-mail, alerting them to the fact that the site was still defaced. There was no response from the company, but the site was restored about an hour after the email was sent.

Photograph by Sean Gallagher

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Hackers politely deface security firm website, suggest fixes

GRAND CAYMAN, CAYMAN ISLANDS--(Marketwire -03/30/12)- Tethys Petroleum Limited ("Tethys" or the "Company") (TSX: TPL.TO - News)(LSE: TPL.L - News) today announced its Annual Results for the period ended December 31, 2011. Tethys is focused on oil and gas exploration and production activities in Central Asia with activities currently in the Republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. This highly prolific oil and gas area is rapidly developing and Tethys believes that significant potential exists in both exploration and in discovered deposits.

Operational Highlights

Kazakhstan

Tajikistan

Uzbekistan

Financial Highlights

The Company also announced completion of a USD10 million loan facility secured against its drilling rigs and related equipment. Part of this loan was a rollover of a previous debt facility primarily related to this equipment giving the company a total current debt burden of USD10 million dollars.

Dr. David Robson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tethys Petroleum, commented: "In 2011 we made significant progress on the key projects in Tethys. In Kazakhstan we drilled successful appraisal wells and made a new exploration discovery both significantly increasing our core reserves. The modeling work we have now completed based on these drilling results bodes well for the new appraisal/exploration wells we will drill in 2012 where success would see further reserves upgrades. The Aral Oil Terminal is now complete and will become operational imminently effectively doubling oil production. In Tajikistan we advanced the deep sub-salt exploration program with the completion of the graviometry survey, the results of which are very exciting and confirm our previous geological evaluation, indicating the possible presence of giant Jurassic reefs below the salt. Looking forward in 2012 the new final seismic survey will focus on the most prospective areas with the intention of firming up a location to spud a deep well."

The full Annual Results together with a Management Discussion & Analysis and Annual Information Form have been filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities. Copies of the filed documents may be obtained via SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com or on Tethys' website at http://www.tethyspetroleum.com. The summary financial statements are attached to this press release.

The Company's 2011 financial statements are prepared under International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS").

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Tethys Petroleum Limited: 2011 Year End Results

CARIBBEAN UTILITIES COMPANY, LTD. CLASS A ORDINARY SHARES ARE LISTED FOR TRADING IN UNITED STATES FUNDS ON THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE (TRADING SYMBOL: CUP.U).

GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, March 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. ("CUC") announced today that the Cayman Islands Information and Communication Technology Authority ("ICTA") has granted its wholly owned subsidiary, DataLink, Ltd ("DataLink"), a licence to provide fibre optic infrastructure in Grand Cayman.

CUC and DataLink have entered into management and maintenance, pole attachment and fibre optic agreements as approved by the Cayman Islands Electricity Regulatory Authority. The ICTA licence will now allow DataLink to assume full responsibility for the existing Pole Attachment Agreements and Optical Fiber Lease Agreement currently held by CUC with third party information and communications technology (ICT) service providers.

President and CEO of CUC Mr. Richard Hew said, "I am pleased that the licence has been granted as it will allow DataLink to provide access to fibre optic and other facilities on commercial terms to companies on the island, particularly those in the ICT sector. CUC has owned a fibre optic network since 2000 and, through DataLink, can now provide an additional service which will benefit both electricity and ICT consumers in Grand Cayman."

President and CEO of DataLink, Andrew Small, anticipates that the existing Pole Attachment Agreements and an Optical Fiber Lease Agreement will be assigned to DataLink in the near future. DataLink presently has a Pole Attachment and Optical Fiber arrangement with the Cayman Islands Government for their CCTV project and the recent grant of this Licence will benefit all stakeholders.

"There is tremendous potential for DataLink. Over the years, we have had a number of requests for access to this fibre optic network and I am very pleased that we are now in a position to make it available," Mr. Small said.

Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. ("CUC" or "the Company"), on occasion, includes forward-looking statements in its media releases, Canadian securities regulatory authorities filings, shareholder reports and other communications. Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon future events or conditions, or include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "plan", "believes", "estimates", "intends", "targets", "projects", "forecasts", "schedule", or negative versions thereof and other similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "may", "will", "should", "would" and "could". Forwardlooking statements are based on underlying assumptions and management's beliefs, estimates and opinions, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations generally that may cause actual results to vary from plans, targets and estimates. Such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to operational, general economic, market and business conditions, regulatory developments and weather conditions. CUC cautions readers that actual results may vary significantly from those expected should certain risks or uncertainties materialize or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law.

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CUC Subsidiary DataLink, Ltd. Receives Licence