iNews Briefs, More & Community Events
Community Events
THU JULY 2
Child Month Board Game
Child Month organisers invite families to enjoy the rescheduled Board Games evening on Tuesday (2 Jun) at Book Nook, in the Galleria Plaza on West Bay Road, 6.00- 8.00pm
National Gallery Summer Arts Drop Ins
The National Gallery of the Cayman Islands is thrilled to be hosting a Summer of Art, free programming that allows kids to utilise their creativity by participating in a range of imaginative activities. Drop-in sessions will take place in the National Gallery Education Centre every Thursday afternoon from 2:00 PM — 4:00 PM Each Summer Camp Drop-in session is different and gives kids ages 6 to 14 multiple opportunities to take part in a range of art-related activities including stenciling, creative group activities, painting, drawing and more.
Bethel Refuge Apostolic Church’s Youth Week
Bethel Refuge Apostolic Church’s Youth Week continues thru Thursday (2 Jul) under the theme The Ultimate Decision: Save Yourself at 715pm nightly at #23 Devon Road in Prospect.
Child Month Board Game
Child Month organisers invite families to enjoy the rescheduled Board Games evening on Tuesday (2 Jun) at Book Nook, in the Galleria Plaza on West Bay Road, 6.00- 8.00pm.
Plantana’s Miss Sadie honored with the 2015 Cayman Islands Stingray Tourism Award
From Plantana
Our very own Miss Sadie, our Laundress, was honored last Tuesday evening at the 12th Annual Cayman Islands Stingray Tourism Awards gala event at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. This prestigious event recognizes and applauds individuals across the various sectors of Cayman’s tourism industry for their excellence and dedication to hospitality. In addition, a special award is given for “Long Service” and another for “Lifetime Achievement”.
The winner of the Long Service Award is someone who demonstrates pride in his or her achievements and provides service excellence. Miss Sadie, who has worked in tourism for 44 years, was one of ten nominees for the Long Service category. With a standing ovation by over 300 attendees, Miss Sadie was presented the beautiful cobalt blue crystal Stingray Award by Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism, the Honorable Moses Kirkconnell and by Mr. Ken Hydes, President of the Cayman Islands Tourism Association.
It was truly a memorable and touching occasion and we are all very proud of Miss Sadie.
Mourant Ozannes makes senior appointments in Guernsey
Leading offshore law firm, Mourant Ozannes, has announced that Dylan Latimer and Sally French will become senior associates on 1 July.
Dylan Latimer, who works in the Corporate Practice, trained at a leading offshore law firm in Dublin before moving to Mourant Ozannes, specialising in corporate, commercial and banking law. He has published a number of articles on corporate law and formerly tutored in business law at the Law Society of Ireland.
Sally French works in the Litigation Practice. Sally joined Mourant Ozannes in 2012 having worked in Leeds, Manchester and London, and specialises in finance litigation, funds disputes, insolvency, fraud and regulatory matters.
Jessica Roland, Managing Partner Guernsey said, “These promotions are thoroughly deserved and are testimony to the personal strengths of Sally and Dylan, their hard work and their commitment to Mourant Ozannes. We all wish them well as their careers progress with the firm”.
Both promotions take effect from the 1 July 2015.
For more: http://www.mourantozannes.com/news/news/mourant-ozannes-makes-senior-appointments-in-guernsey.aspx
HIV rate study highlights condom use gap among Caribbean youth in Canada
From Caribbean News Service
ONTARIO, Canada – A study examining the rates of HIV infection among local African, Caribbean and black youth here has found they are using condoms less often than their peers, though their sexual activities are otherwise the same as the broader population of youth that has a lower rate of infection.
More than 500 youths in these groups in Windsor and Essex County here took part in a survey over the past two calendar years, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). The participants were all 16 to 25 years of age.
Eleanor Maticka-Tindale, a University of Windsor professor and Canada Research Chair in social justice and sexual health, told CBC News that the researchers found that “they don’t look very different than Canadian youth in general in terms of their sexual activities”
This includes the age at which sexual activity begins and the number of sexual partners these youth report.
Maticka-Tindale said the survey found that local African, Caribbean and black youths “don’t use condoms as often as Canadian youth in general”.
In the survey, participants were asked if they were HIV positive. The reported rate of HIV infection was approximately 15 in 1,000, a rate that is similar to African, Caribbean and black youth across the country, but well above the 1 in 1,000 Canadians in the same age group, according to CBC.
At the provincial level, according to CBC, Maticka-Tindale said individuals in these same groups have a higher rate of infection than the broader population.
“African, Caribbean and black people account for between four and five per cent of the population of Ontario, but they account for approximately 18 to 19 per cent of HIV infections,” Maticka-Tindale said.
“So that’s roughly four to five times higher than it should be proportional to the population and that’s what we pay attention to,” she added.
Kenny Gbadebo, the co-principal investigator on the study, said there is a need for outreach to the young people in the African, Caribbean and black communities.
“We don’t seem to have any programs, per se, to engage some of these young people, which is very concerning and disturbing to me,” he said.
Rbr European Long Short Filing. Don Seymour Filed
BY OCTASTAFF
Pooled Investment Fund Rbr European Long Short Ltd. – Don Seymour
Rbr European Long Short Form D
The Cayman Islands-based Rbr European Long Short Ltd. had published Form D regarding $8.87 million offering. This is a new filing. The raised $8.87 million. The offering is still open. The total private offering amount was $8.87 million. The offering filing was filed on 2015-06-30. Rbr European Long Short Ltd.’s clarification was: The recipients listed in Item 12 are also paid an amount equal to a percentage of the management fee paid to the Investment Manager attributable to certain assets under management and/or the incentive allocation..
Rbr European Long Short is based in Cayman Islands. The firm’s business is Pooled Investment Fund. The form D was signed by Don Seymour Director. The company was incorporated more than five years ago. The filler’s address is: Maples Corporate Services Limited, Ugland House, P.O. Box 309, Grand Cayman, E9, Cayman Islands, Ky1-1104. – Standard Capital N.V. is the related person in the form and it has address: Ara Hill Top Building, Unit A-5, Pletterijweg Oost 1, Willemstad, P8, Netherlands Antilles, 00000. Link to Rbr European Long Short Filing: 000091957415005140.
Analysis of Rbr European Long Short Offering
On average, firms in the Pooled Investment Fund sector, sell 37.80% investment fund interests. Rbr European Long Short sold 100.00% of the offering. The average offering size is $24.76 million for companies in the Pooled Investment Fund industry sector. The total amount raised is 64.16% smaller than the average for companies in the Pooled Investment Fund sector.
25 graduate from Leadership Cayman programme
A total of 25 persons graduated from the 2015 Leadership Cayman programme at Wyndham Reef Resort in East End on Saturday, June 27.
Each of the participants successfully completed all requirements of the programme, including attending a two-day seminar over in Cayman Brac, which focuses on the key issues and concerns of the Sister Islands as well as completely their community service project benefiting Meals on Wheels.
Days earlier Leadership Cayman conducted their 11th and final seminar, which focused on Caymanian culture and heritage. The aim was to gain a better understanding of Caymanian culture and heritage both past and present and to better understand the issues we collectively face.
The group started off with a tour of the Cayman Islands National Museum where they were able to view many different elements of Caymanian history. The team then went on to tour the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands where they could visualize the different cultures and themes through the artwork of many talented Caymanian artists.
SOURCE: http://www.loopcayman.com/content/25-graduate-leadership-cayman-programme
A.M. Best Briefing: A.M. Best comments on proposed U.S. Tax changes for Offshore (Re)Insurers
Business Wire A.M. Best Company
OLDWICK, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–
Proposed U.S. legislation aimed at preventing offshore tax avoidance by closing a tax loophole that allows offshore reinsurers to take advantage of an exception to the passive foreign investment company (PFIC) rules of the U.S. Tax Code will not lead to rating revisions over the near term, according to a new briefing from A.M. Best.
The Best’s Briefing, titled, “A.M. Best Comments on Proposed U.S. Tax Changes of Offshore (Re)Insurers, states that companies would likely seek operating alternatives to ensure capital efficiency if the tax benefits for offshore companies are eliminated. The draft legislation, titled, “The Offshore Reinsurance Tax Fairness Act,” is aimed at providing a bright line test for determining whether a company is truly a(n) (re)insurance company for the purposes of determining exceptions to the PFIC rules.
Under the proposed rule, to be considered a true (re)insurance company, its (re)insurance liabilities would need to exceed 25% of its invested assets. If the company fails to qualify because its (re)insurance liabilities are less than the 25% threshold, but not less than 10%, the company could still be considered predominantly engaged in the business of (re)insurance based on facts and circumstances.
The flexibility provided by the determination based on facts and circumstance also seems to be aimed at those (re)insurance companies that at times may not hold a large base of (re)insurance liabilities due to the absence of large loss events, but nonetheless do take significant (re)insured risk. An additional issue is new company formations that have not built a reserve base to unity.
For the full copy of this briefing, please visit http://www3.ambest.com/bestweek/purchase.asp?record_code=238930.
A.M. Best Company is the world’s oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.
Copyright © 2015 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Didi Kuaidi in talks to invest in dominant SE Asia taxi-hailing app Grabtaxi: report
By Zen Soo From South China Morning Post
Mainland China’s leading taxi-hailing app Didi Kuaidi is reportedly in talks to invest in southeast Asian rival Grabtaxi, according to media reports.
An unnamed source in the investment community told Chinese IT news portal Yesky that Xiaoju Kuaizhi, the Cayman Islands-based holding company which owns Didi Kuaidi, was hoping an investment in Grabtaxi would enable it to following competitor Uber in expanding into overseas markets.
Headquarted in Singapore, Grabtaxi operates taxi-hailing services in 20 cities across Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. As of March, the company had 75,000 registered drivers and more than 3.8 million users across the region.
Reached by the South China Morning Post, Grabtaxi declined to comment on any potential investment.
Didi Kuaidi, formed by the merger of Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache and by far the largest player in China’s car-hailing market with a more than 95 per cent share, is expanding rapidly to keep up with growing demand and to fend off advances from US rival Uber.
Last week, Didi Kuaidi set a target of US$2 billion for its latest fundraising round, after its initial US$1.5 billion goal was oversubscribed in just five days.
Uber recently announced plans to invest more than US$1 billion in its Chinese operations this year. Last week, an Uber Hong Kong executive said at the second SCMP Game Changers forum that the company’s Asian operations may soon surpass the US.
While the San Francisco-based company claims more than one million daily Uber riders in China, this figure has come into question with reports surfacing that many drivers in the country fake rides in order to cash in on generous subsidies offered by the company.
First female police commander for Cayman Brac
Inspector Wendy Parchment has been appointed area commander (from Friday 3 July) of Cayman Brac.
Parchment takes over from Inspector Harold Forte.
A monkey attacked Johnny Depp’s makeup artist on the set of Pirates Of The Caribbean
By Allison From dlisted
On the upside, that little monkey has already perfected his “I deeply regret my actions, Diane” face for his future exclusive interview with 20/20.What do you think?
Johnny Depp’s messy down under animal adventure continues. First it was a dramatic fight with Australian agriculture officials over his Yorkie dogs Boo and Pistol being smuggled into the country, and now it’s an attack on his makeup artist by an angry monkey. What’s next? Amber Heard leaving him for Roger the buff kangaroo and taking his favorite hat with her?What do you think?
According to the Daily Mail, Johnny’s makeup artist was taking a break on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean 5 when she found herself on the wrong end of a beat down from an actor monkey believed to be the same one who plays Geoffrey Rush’s sidekick, Jack the Monkey. The 54-year-old woman was reportedly hanging out on a sound stage (where a different movie was being shot) around noon today when the monkey ran up behind her and pulled a Mike Tyson by biting her ear. I guess that tiny Capuchin monkey mouth did some serious damage, because paramedics were called and she was rushed to the hospital. What do you think?
Jack the Monkey was played by a monkey named Chiquita in the last 3 Pirates films, but there’s no word of whether or not it was Chiquita who went HAM on Johnny’s makeup artist. There’s also no word on what will happen to that angry monkey, but something tells me it just lost its SAG-AFTRA membership. What do you think?
Even though Johnny’s makeup artist is currently stuck in the hospital recovering from her monkey bite, I doubt they’ll have to put shooting on hold. Johnny Depp doesn’t even really need a makeup artist; he’s become a pro at painting his own homeless hungover pirate drag. What do you think?
Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta Index Fund Form D
From OCTA Finance
The Cayman Islands-based Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta Index Fund, Ltd. filed Form D for $699.53 million offering. The date of first sale was 2012-04-10. The raised $699.53 million. The offering is still open. The total offering amount amount was $699.53 million. The form was filed on 2015-07-01. Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta Index Fund, Ltd.’s clarification was: Customary advisory fees are paid by the Issuer to the Investment Manager as provided for in the Issuer’s offering materials..
Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta Index Fund is based in Cayman Islands. The filler’s business is Pooled Investment Fund. The form D was filed by George Bashforth Director. The company was incorporated in 2010. The filler’s address is: Maples Corporate Services Limited, Ugland House, So. Church St., Po Box 309, Grand Cayman, E9, Cayman Islands, Ky1-1104. George Bashforth is the related person in the form and it has address: Appleby Trust (Cayman) Limited, Clifton House, 75 Fort St. P.O. Box 1350, Grand Cayman, E9, Cayman Islands, Ky1-1108. Link to Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta Index Fund Filing: 000152583215000001.
Analysis of Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta Index Fund Offering
On average, firms in the Pooled Investment Fund sector, sell 37.80% pooled investment interest. Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta Index Fund sold 100.00% of the offering. The average investment offering size is $24.76 million for companies in the Pooled Investment Fund industry sector. The minimum investment for Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta Index Fund ‘s private offering was $1000000.
Qunar Cayman Islands Limited (NASDAQ:QUNR) Analyst Rating Update
JUNE 30, 2015 From Investor Newswire
Wall Street analysts polled by Zacks Research have given Qunar Cayman Islands Limited (NASDAQ:QUNR) a rating of 1.8 on a consensus basis. Using a simplified scale where 1 is a Strong Buy and 5 a Strong Sell, this is the average number of the 3 brokerages surveyed. The stock had a rating of 1.8 when analyst ratings were averaged three months ago.
The covering analysts have a one year price objective of $57 on Qunar Cayman Islands Limited (NASDAQ:QUNR). The most bullish brokerage firm sees the stock heading to $59 , while the most conservative estimate has an objective of $55.
Earnings Look
Wall Street will be paying close attention when Qunar Cayman Islands Limited reports their next quarterly earnings report on 2015-08-20. Analysts polled by Zacks are expecting earnings per share of $-1.06 for the period ending 2015-06-30. This is the consensus number based on the 3 broker predictions taken into consideration. On a longer term basis, sell-side analysts who project long term growth are expecting earnings of $N/A. This is the three to five year estimate for both earnings and sales.
Most recently Qunar Cayman Islands Limited reported actual earnings of $-0.52 per share for the quarter ending on 2015-03-31. The actual reported number was $0.06 away from what analysts had expected, yielding a surprise factor of 10.34%.
Shooting at S.C. Church a ‘Barbaric Act,’ AG Loretta Lynch says
By Mike Sacks, From The National Law Journal
The U.S. Justice Department has opened a hate-crimes investigation into the mass shooting that killed nine worshippers at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said.
Lynch, addressing reporters at a press conference in Washington on Thursday, called the attack at the church “a crime that has reached into the heart of that community.” After delivering her initial remarks, Lynch learned that Dylann Storm Roof, the 21-year-old suspect in the fatal shootings, had been arrested by local law enforcement in North Carolina.
“This moves us into a different phase of the investigation, which will be pursued as vigorously and with complete cooperation as with the apprehension of this individual,” Lynch said. “Now that we do have someone in custody, we will be exploring all the motives” behind the attack, which Lynch called a “barbaric act.”
According to a local NBC affiliate, a survivor of the attacks said Roof told those assembled in the church, “You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”
Lynch said it is “premature” to determine whether the state or federal system would handle the criminal case rooted in the shooting, but she said the Justice Department and FBI, along with other arms of federal law enforcement, are working closely with local law enforcement.
“Even as we struggle to comprehend this heartbreaking event, I want everyone in Charleston and everyone who has been affected by this tragedy to known that we will do everything in our power to help heal this community and make it whole again,” Lynch said.
President Barack Obama said in a statement from the White House:
Mother Emanuel is, in fact, more than a church. This is a place of worship that was founded by African-Americans seeking liberty. This is a church that was burned to the ground because its worshipers worked to end slavery. When there were laws banning all-black church gatherings, they conducted services in secret. When there was a nonviolent movement to bring our country closer in line with our highest ideals, some of our brightest leaders spoke and led marches from this church’s steps. This is a sacred place in the history of Charleston and in the history of America.
Obama added: “I’ll let the best of law enforcement do its work to make sure that justice is served.”
‘Center of civil rights movement’
Emanuel A.M.E. Church has long been central to civil right advocacy in Charleston. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders in the 1960s spoke there. Thomas Tisdale, an attorney at Hellman Yates & Tisdale in Charleston and a former president of the South Carolina Historical Society, said the church was a “focal point for organizing.”
“It’s been associated with the legal community in pretty significant ways in that it has been a center of civil rights movement activities,” Tisdale said.
Armand Derfner of Derfner & Altman in Charleston, who’s fought for voting rights and other civil rights issues in the South, said he’d attended political organizing meetings at the church since the 1970s.
The shooting Wednesday night is “a devastating blow to the people in the community and certainly in the whole state,” said Lacy Ford Jr., a historian and vice provost of the University of South Carolina. The church is the oldest independent African-American congregation in South Carolina, he said, and has been “a sort of community touchstone.”
Lynch, the first African-American woman to serve as U.S. attorney general, was born in segregated North Carolina, where her father, Rev. Lorenzo Lynch, was active in the civil rights movement. In May, she opened a civil rights investigation into whether Baltimore’s police department systematically engages in racially discriminatory practices.
This story was updated with information about Emanuel A.M.E. Church. Zoe Tillman contributed to this report.
For more on this story go to: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202729793276/Shooting-at-SC-Church-a-Barbaric-Act-AG-Loretta-Lynch-Says#ixzz3doRHh7ML
Justin Bieber must face copyright suit, Appeals Court rules
By Zoe Tillman, From The National Law Journal
Fourth Circuit scrutinizes hit song “Somebody to Love” in its ruling against pop star.
Pop star Justin Bieber will have to face the music—or, more specifically, a jury—on claims that his hit song “Somebody to Love” infringed on copyrighted material.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit revived the case on Thursday, more than a year after Bieber’s lawyers got the case dismissed in the trial court. A three-judge panel found that Bieber and recording artist Usher’s versions of the song had enough in common with an earlier song by musician Devin Copeland and his songwriting partner to send the dispute to a jury.
“After listening to the Copeland song and the Bieber and Usher songs as wholes, we conclude that their choruses are similar enough and also significant enough that a reasonable jury could find the songs intrinsically similar,” Judge Pamela Harris (left) of the Fourth Circuit wrote.
The judges delved into the nuances of song composition, finding “meaningful overlap” between the choruses of the different versions of “Somebody to Love.” The panel peppered its opinion with pop culture references, from the Beatles and Aretha Franklin to the White Stripes.
There’s no certainty the case will go to trial. But if it does, the case will be the second time in a year that a jury was asked to decide whether a hit pop song infringed on copyrights. In March, a federal jury in Los Angeles found that singer-songwriters Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke copied elements of Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up.” Williams and Thicke were ordered to pay nearly $7.4 million to the late singer’s family.
New York solo practitioner Jonathan Davis and Stephen Noona of Kaufman & Canoles in Norfolk, Virginia, who argued for Bieber and Usher, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Duncan Byers of the Byers Law Group in Norfolk, who argued for Copeland and his songwriting partner Mareio Overton, said that “we are extremely pleased that the Fourth Circuit panel unanimously recognized the striking similarities between my clients’ work and the copies. My clients are looking forward to vindicating their claims in a trial and are positive a jury will agree with the court of appeals.”
Byers said there had been no settlement discussions in the case so far, but that his clients were open to an offer.
According to Copeland’s complaint, his song “Somebody to Love” was on an album that made its way into Usher’s hands through an artist recruiter. Copeland, whose stage name is “De Rico,” said that Usher’s manager (his mother Jonetta Patton) told Copeland that she and Usher were interested in having Copeland re-record the song and join Usher on tour, but there was never any follow-up.
A few months later, according to court papers, Usher recorded a song called “Somebody to Love” and posted the video on YouTube. He didn’t release it commercially, instead bringing it to Bieber to record. Bieber’s version reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Bieber also recorded a remix of the song with Usher (see video at link below).
Copeland sued Bieber and Usher in May 2013 in the U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Virginia for copyright infringement. He claimed the duo ripped off his song “Somebody to Love,” pointing to similarities with the songs that Bieber and Usher released. Bieber and Usher successfully argued in the district court that the case should be dismissed because no “reasonable” jury could find that the songs were “substantially similar.” Copeland appealed.
To win under copyright law, Copeland had to prove both “extrinsic” and “intrinsic” similarities between the songs. Determining extrinsic similarity would involve a technical analysis of musical composition, while intrinsic similarity is more subjective, measuring similarities in the audience experience of listening to the music.
The district judge found Copeland’s case failed the intrinsic-similarity test, and dismissed it without reaching the extrinsic prong. The Fourth Circuit rejected Copeland’s objections to the legal framework that the district judge used to compare the songs, instead finding that the district judge was simply wrong to find that a reasonable jury couldn’t find substantial similarities.
Appeals court listens to Bieber song
To determine whether there were intrinsic similarities, the Fourth Circuit judges listened to the songs “in their entirety and side by side,” Harris wrote. (The Fourth Circuit’s oral argument audio is here.)
Copeland’s song was a different genre than the Bieber and Usher versions, the appeals court said, but that wasn’t enough to rule out copyright infringement.
“For if a difference in genre were enough by itself to preclude intrinsic similarity, then nothing would prevent someone from translating, say, the Beatles’ songbook into a different genre, and then profiting from an unlicensed reggae or heavy metal version of ‘Hey Jude’ on the ground that it is different in ‘concept and feel’ than the original,” Harris wrote.
The Fourth Circuit panel said the district judge put too much weight on differences in the “aesthetic appeal” of the songs and not enough on similarities between the “element,” or chorus. In the choruses, the court found “the kind of meaningful overlap on which a reasonable jury could rest a finding of substantial similarity.” The lyric “somebody to love” was “delivered in what seems to be an almost identical rhythm and a strikingly similar melody,” Harris wrote.
Judges James Wynn Jr. and Henry Floyd also heard the case.
Updated with comments from Duncan Byers.
IMAGE: Justin Bieber. Credit: Joe Bielawa via Wikimedia Commons
For more on this story and video go to: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202729814216/Justin-Bieber-Must-Face-Copyright-Suit-Appeals-Court-Rules#ixzz3doUtT8cJ
