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Bahama Islands News, Articles and Information
Anna house-hunting again
Nassau - Anna Nicole Smith is house-hunting again in the Bahamas, where a former boyfriend is seeking to remove her from a waterfront home where she has taken refuge since her son's death.The reality TV star and her companion Howard K Stern are considering homes on the islands of Eleuthera, Grand Bahama and elsewhere in the archipelago, Smith attorney Wayne Munroe said on Monday.
Smith, who gave birth to a daughter in the Bahamas, used the house in Nassau as the basis for her application for permanent residency. The home has been the subject of an ownership dispute between her and a South Carolina businessman.
If a court rules against her in the dispute, Munroe said Smith wants to make sure she can meet the condition of owning a home worth at least $500 000 needed to maintain permanent residency in the Bahamas.
Your passport to vacation savings
A new regulation that will effectively require passports for most U.S. travelers to the Caribbean is having a surprising impact on the winter getaway season that starts next month.Fearful that Americans without passports will stay home or go elsewhere, Caribbean resorts are rolling out some unusual extra incentives.
The Westin and Sheraton resort on Grand Bahama is offering a $100 credit to guests who have recently purchased a U.S. passport. On St. Kitts, the Frigate Bay Resort is cutting 20 percent off some guests' tabs, while the Boardwalk Boutique Hotel in Aruba is offering a $50 rental-car voucher. Similar deals are popping up at resorts from Jamaica to the Dominican Republic.
Starting Jan. 8, U.S. citizens returning from the Caribbean must have a passport to re-enter the country.
Anna Nicole house-hunting in the Bahamas
Anna Nicole Smith is house-hunting again in the Bahamas, where a former boyfriend is seeking to remove her from a waterfront home where she has taken refuge since her son's death.The reality TV star and her companion Howard K. Stern are considering homes on the islands of Eleuthera, Grand Bahama and elsewhere in the archipelago, Smith lawyer Wayne Munroe said today.
Smith, who gave birth to a daughter in the Bahamas, used the house in Nassau as the basis for her application for permanent residency. The home has been the subject of an ownership dispute between her and a South Carolina businessman.
If a court rules against her in the dispute, Munroe said Smith wants to make sure she can meet the condition of owning a home worth at least $US500,000 ($A657,000) needed to maintain permanent residency in the Bahamas.
A new, uninsured reality
According to meterological data collected by the website hurricanecity.com, Grand Bahama is the second most frequently hurricane-hit land mass in the world, following Grand Cayman. Since 1871, Grand Bahama has weathered a hurricane on average once every 2.45 years, and Andros, Abaco and Bimini are close behind in the top 10 list. Hurricanes are a reality in the Bahamas, and so, too, are increasingly expensive premiums for hurricane insurance. Since 2004, insurance rates in Grand Bahama have jumped 20-40 percent, according to several insurance providers. The cost of hurricane insurance, according to Patrick Ward, CEO of Bahamas First General Insurance, has a lot to do with the cost of reinsuranceĀinsurance for insurance companies. Each year reinsurers put up billions of dollars in capital in a gamble against the likelihood of a catastrophe, and when disaster strikes, they pay dearly.