iNews Briefs
Cayman’s Operation Tempura Boss, Bridger, under investigation
The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) have revealed that Martin Bridger, the lead investigator of the fiasco known as Operation Tempura, an investigation into police corruption in the Cayman islands, is himself under investigation.
We understand counter accusations have been made against Bridger because of his publication of allegations against the attorney general, the former governor and the FCO’s OT security advisor.
The RCIPS have dismissed Bridger’s accusations.
According to a story on CNS concerning this Bridger said, “his concerns have never been fully addressed because he never been interviewed and because there is evidence that the RCIPS has never seen that supports the claims”. See http://www.caymannewsservice.com/crime/2014/08/04/cops-investigate-tempura-boss
See also iNews Cayman Editorial published August 3 2014 “… the release of the documents held for … Operation T*** … would not be in the public interest” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/the-editor-speaks-the-release-of-the-documents-held-for-operation-t-would-not-be-in-the-public-interest/
Chikungunya tops 500,000 cases in Latin Caribbean
By Robert Herriman From Outbreak News Today
Approximately eight months after the first autochthonous, or locally acquired chikungunya cases were reported for the first time in the Western Hemisphere on the island of St. Martin, the total number of imported cases has eclipsed a half million cases, according to new data released from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) today.
The official number of cases reported in the Latin Caribbean is now 501,644, while the number of indigenous cases reported in all the Americas stands at 508,122.
Six out of 10 cases have been reported from the Dominican Republic, which tallied 307,933 cases in Epidemiological Week 31, up 26,000 cases from last week. In addition to the DR, Guadaloupe reported 71,000 cases, Haiti reported nearly 65,000 and Martinique recorded 54,000. The French side of St. Martin, where the epidemic began has reported 4,500 cases.
In North America, the United States reported their 3rd and 4th locally acquired chikungunya cases in the state of Florida.
For more: http://outbreaknewstoday.com/chikungunya-tops-500000-cases-in-latin-caribbean-22919/
Cayman Islands Monetary Authority appoints new deputy MD
By Richard Cutcher From Captive Review
Anna McLean has returned to the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) to take up the position of deputy managing director.
McLean’s role will include oversight of all the regulator’s divisions, including banking, insurance and securities.
The banking expert first joined the banking supervision department as an analyst in 1990, before working her way up to head of banking at CIMA in 2000. McLean left the authority in 2005 to become chief compliance officer at CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank.
She said: “I look forward to taking on this new role, working with the management team and Board of CIMA, as we all strive for continued improvement to ensure that the Authority is well positioned to deal with the challenges of regulating a dynamic and diverse financial industry.”
The Cayman Islands has more than 750 captive insurers licensed in the domicile.
“We are very pleased that Anna will be coming back to take up this new role at CIMA,” said Cindy Scotland, managing director at CIMA. “Her qualifications and experience make her a perfect fit for the role, as CIMA continues to enhance the robustness of its supervision processes.”
For more: http://www.captivereview.com/news/1743322/cima-appoints-new-deputy-md.thtml
Three people shot by “madman” in Jamaica Corporate Area
From Caribbean360
Illustration of 12 guns with flags as the textureKINGSTON, Jamaica, Monday August 4, 2014, CMC – The police are investigating an incident that led to the shooting of three persons in the busy thoroughfare of Half Way Tree Square on Sunday afternoon.
The police report that shortly after 2pm motorists and pedestrians ran for cover when Kevin Dunchie, 33, – believed to be of unsound mind, disarmed a traffic cop and started firing the gun indiscriminately, shooting two civilians, including a woman in the process.
The “madman” was then shot in the leg, thigh and buttocks by another policeman, who recovered the weapon.
The injured were taken to hospital for treatment.
The police say their injuries are not considered life threatening.
Skin cancer awareness in the Cayman Islands
By Victoria Anderson Grey From Cayman Islands Cancer Society
Starting August 31, 2014
Did you know that June, July and August are Skin Cancer Awareness months in Cayman?
Factors that increase the risk of developing skin cancer include:
Ultraviolet (UV) light: Sunlight is the main source of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which can damage the genes in your skin cells. UV light is thought to be the major risk factor for most skin cancers. Tanning lamps and booths are another source of UV radiation.
The amount of UV exposure depends on the strength of the light, how long the skin was exposed, and whether the skin was covered with clothing and sunscreen. Many studies show that being exposed to a lot of sun when you are young is an added risk factor.
People who live in places with year-round, bright sunlight have a higher risk. Spending a lot of time outdoors without covering your skin and using sunscreen increases your risk.
For more: http://www.cics.ky/index.php/Events/skin-cancer-awareness
ECLAC revises Lat Am and Caribbean growth forecasts
LIMA, Aug 4 (BERNAMA-NNN-ANDINA) — The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will update its growth estimates for the region’s countries this year, as part of its Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2014.
The annual report will be launched on Mon at the ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile by its Executive Secretary, Alicia Barcena.
The document will be released at a press conference that will be broadcast live online through the ECLAC website at 11.00 a.m. (09:00 in Lima).
The Economic Survey 2014 analyses the economic performance of Latin America and the Caribbean during the first half of the year, and provides forecasts for the next few months. This is one of the most important documents issued by this United Nations regional commission.
The report also examines challenges for the region’s economic and social sustainability and its public policies, in the light of the current external environment.
The Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) was founded with the purpose of contributing to the economic development of Latin America, coordinating actions directed towards this end, and reinforcing economic ties among countries and with other nations of the world.
The scope of the Commission’s work was later broadened to include the countries of the Caribbean.
For more on this story go to:
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=1057632
Jamaican helper gets reprieve in Cayman [ordered to leave after 20 years!]
From Loop News Service
Birdy Evadney Blake Morrison of Jamaica can breathe a sigh of relief for now, as she has been allowed to remain working for her current employer in the Cayman Islands.
Morrison, who has been living in Cayman the past 20 years, was earlier this year ordered to leave the country in three months after her appeal for permanent status failed.
Her employer, a prominent immigration lawyer, sought a judicial review appealing the decision on the grounds that those living in Cayman for a long time should be given a year at least to get their house in order.
This resulted in Grand Court Justice Richard Williams agreeing that there was sufficient grounds for an arguable case ordering the matter to proceed to a full hearing.
Morrison will continue to work while she awaits the outcome of the appeal.
For more: http://loopjamaica.com/2014/08/04/news-jamaican-helper-gets-reprieve-in-cayman/
Elderly man dies in Bahamas jet ski accident
From Caribbean360
NASSAU, Bahamas, Monday August 4, 2014, CMC – Police said a 55-year-old man died after he was involved in an accident while riding a jet ski over the last weekend.
The authorities Monday have not disclosed the name of the victim, but said he was one of two men on the jet ski when “they reportedly lost control” of the craft and thrown into the water.
“One of the males resurfaced and the other did not surface,” the police said, adding that he was later retrieved in an unconscious state”.
The police statement said the victim was transported to the Rand Memorial Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbean360.com/news/elderly-man-dies-in-bahamas-jet-ski-accident?utm_source=Caribbean360%20Newsletters&utm_campaign=c36c1e5a24-Vol_9_Issue_154_News8_4_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_350247989a-c36c1e5a24-39393477
Vantage Drilling Company schedules Second Quarter 2014 earnings release date and conference call
HOUSTON, TX — (Marketwired) — 07/31/14 — Vantage Drilling Company (“Vantage”) (NYSE MKT: VTG) today announced that it will conduct a call at 11:00 AM Eastern Time on August 5, 2014 to discuss operating results for the second quarter 2014 and recent developments. Vantage will release earnings before the market opens on August 5, 2014. To access the conference call, U.S. callers may dial toll free 866-293-8969 and international callers may dial 913-312-4375. The pass code will be 3063160. Please call ten minutes ahead of time to ensure proper connection. A replay of the conference call will be available for two weeks following the call and can be accessed by dialing 888-203-1112 for U.S. callers and 719-457-0820 for international callers. The access code for the replay is 3063160.
About the Company
Vantage, a Cayman Islands exempted company, is an offshore drilling contractor, with an owned fleet of three ultra-deepwater drillships, the Platinum Explorer, the Titanium Explorer and the Tungsten Explorer, as well as an additional ultra-deepwater drillship, the Cobalt Explorer, now under construction, and four Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 ultra-premium jackup drilling rigs.
For further information, contact:
Paul A. Bragg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, (281) 404-4700
WHO: Ebola Spreading Too Fast, ‘Catastrophic’
From Newsmax
CONAKRY, Guinea — An Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 700 people in West Africa is moving faster than efforts to control the disease, the head of the World Health Organization warned as presidents from the affected countries met Friday in Guinea’s capital.
Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director-general, said the meeting in Conakry “must be a turning point” in the battle against Ebola, which is now sickening people in three African capitals for the first time in history.
“If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socio-economic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries,” she said, as the WHO formally launched a $100 million response plan that includes deploying hundreds more health care workers.
Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said the WHO pledge “needs to translate to immediate and effective action.” While the group has deployed some 550 health workers, it said it did not have the resources to expand further.
Doctors Without Borders said its teams are overwhelmed with new Ebola patients in Sierra Leone and that the situation in Liberia is now “dire.”
“Over the last weeks, there has been a significant surge in the epidemic – the number of cases has increased dramatically in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and the disease has spread to many more villages and towns,” the organization said in a statement. “After a lull in new cases in Guinea, there has been a resurgence in infections and deaths in the past week.”
At least 729 people have died since cases first emerged in March: 339 in Guinea, 233 in Sierra Leone, 156 in Liberia and one in Nigeria.
For more on this story go to: http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/ebola-who-spread-fast/2014/08/02/id/586440#ixzz39RQW1Zy0
See also iNews Cayman related story published August 3 2014 “Ebola viral disease in West Africa: Warning from Cayman Islands PHD” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/ebola-viral-disease-in-west-africa-warning-from-cayman-islands-phd/
Mercosur strengthens regional integration with Caribbean
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Elías Jaua characterized the results from the Presidential Summit of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) as “positive” given that measures were adopt to widen integration between this regional system and the countries that are part of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), PetroCaribe and the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
Jaua made his remarks during a press conference at the Foreign Ministry.
He indicated that one of the great successes of the Mercosur summit was the creation of an Economic Complementation Zone that will seek to spur political and economic factors in order to consolidate regional trade and production. This increased cooperation will benefit South America and the Caribbean and will potentially cover the needs of over 300 million people who live in the region.
The Foreign Minister also referred to the launch of the Bank of the South. This entity will encourage development projects in infrastructure, food production and energy to benefit the region’s peoples. It will also maintain links with the BRICS Development Bank, allowing it to offer better loans in order to spur socioeconomic development.
Jaua then explained that one of the most significant achievements of Venezuela’s pro tempore presidency of Mercosur was the creation of Indigenous Mercosur and Laborer Mercosur, which will lead to more social inclusion in the integration process of South America.
He noted that “these social components will strengthen Mercosur activities, not just economically, but also socially, and will benefit our peoples.”
For more: http://venezuela-us.org/2014/08/01/mercosur-strengthens-regional-integration-with-caribbean/
Virgin Atlantic air steward killed in car crash in the Caribbean
By Kiran Randhawa From Evening Standard UK
A British flight steward was killed when he was hit by a car on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.
Quinton Garrathy, who had a three-month-old daughter, was struck as he crossed the road close to his hotel.
The 38-year-old Virgin Atlantic crew member had arrived on the island on Saturday morning and was out eating and drinking with colleagues before the collision, at 1.30am yesterday.
It is believed he was hit by an SUV near the Rodney Bay Marina in Gros Inlet on the way back to his hotel.
He was married to another member of the Virgin crew, Naomi Garrathy, with whom he had a daughter, Olivia-Rae. The couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary last month.
Tributes poured in on Mr Garrathy’s Facebook page today, with friends calling him “a legend”. Mr Garrathy, from Southampton, had worked for Virgin Atlantic for 15 years.
In a statement the airline said: “Virgin Atlantic can confirm crew member Quinton Garrathy was involved in a fatal accident in St Lucia on Sunday August 3, 2014.
“This is a very difficult time for the crew member’s family and our heartfelt condolences go out to all who knew him. Quinton will be missed by all his friends and colleagues.”
Orchestra Produces Reggae Classical
By Karrie Williams, Jamaica Gleaner
WESTERN BUREAU:Though it was Saturday, Montegonians came out in their Sunday best, revealing themselves as undercover classical music loves. They flooded to the Montego Bay Convention Centre, where the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (YOA) showed the global power of reggae when they put a classical spin to three Bob Marley classics at a concert held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Saturday night.
Led by Mexican conductor, Carlos Miguel Prieto, the orchestra never missed a beat as they excited patrons with a slew of the King of Reggae’s evergreen songs, Who Shot the Sheriff, No Woman Nuh Cry and Don’t worry, highlighting the richness of Marley’s lyrics and bringing a fitting end to the near three hour-long concert.
But it was not only Marley’s songs that thrilled concertgoers. Local soprano Ana Strachan, sang her heart out, delivering two masterful renditions, Ave Maria and Poor Wand’ring One. Strachan, who holds a bachelor’s in music from Ithaca College in New York, could not have been more composed as she took over the stage and showed her Jamaican audience that there is immense enjoyment in classical music.
Peter Ashbourne’s Pass Di Ball, also generated a lot of excitement, and, along with Marley’s hits, provided the most familiar atmosphere to the concert; which, while bringing audience members to a euphoric high, took nothing away from the other segments, as all were totally enjoyable all round.
This was the orchestra’s first time touring in Jamaica, an event made possible by major sponsorship from The Gleaner, Caribbean Producers Limited, Rainforest Seafoods, and Digicel.
For more: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140803/out/out3.html
Founder of now defunct Caribbean discount airline RedJet, dead at 58
From caribbean360
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Friday August 1, 2014, CMC – Ian Burns, the founder of Redjet, the airline that was the flag carrier of Barbados, died in his native Ireland on Wednesday.
Burns, 58, died from a massive heart attack.
Barbadian businessman, Ralph ‘Bizzy’ Williams said Thursday that Burns, probably died of a broken heart due to the failure of the low cost carrier.
Burns, founded Redjet in 2010, with one-way fares as low as US$9.99 across regional destinations.
Though widely popular among Caribbean commuters, the airline never got the institutional support sought from regional governments, Williams said. It ran into financial problems and collapsed in 2012.
“The man came to Barbados. He tried to set up a regional airline. He was frustrated non-stop by technocrats, here and in the other islands,” contended Williams, an investor who said he lost millions in the venture.
“And I guess he died of a broken heart. His heart failed him, and having to go back to Ireland to face all the people who invested in his project would have been a tough time for him. He was not a guy who was trivial with people’s money,” Williams told the Caribbean Media Corporation.
“We are now paying the price in the Caribbean.”
On the day Burns died, Chairman of the Barbados Tourism Authority, Adrian Elcock, bemoaned the loss of that airline, pointing to the dramatic reduction in visitors from the region to Barbados.
Feeding GMOs to wildlife and spraying bee-killing pesticides at national refuges: Is the end near?
From Care2
For nearly 10 years, two nonprofits filed lawsuits, legal petitions and countless administrative actions to stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in its tracks.
The issue that Center for Food Safety and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) took with the FWS? The regular use of genetically engineered (GE) crops and bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides in national refuge farming programs—which ultimately interfere with the very plants and animals the refuge system is designed to protect.
Yesterday, the FWS announced in an internal memorandum that the agency will ban neonic pesticides and phase out GE feed for wildlife by January 2016.
“GE crops and toxic pesticides violate the basic purposes of our protected national lands,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of Center for Food Safety. “We applaud the Fish and Wildlife Service for recognizing what our legal challenges have repeatedly stated and courts have repeatedly held: that they must stop permitting these harmful agricultural practices.”
National Wildlife Refuge System Chief James Kurth acknowledged in the memorandum that the agency has demonstrated its ability to “successfully accomplish refuge purposes over the past two years without using genetically modified crops, therefore it is no longer possible to say that their use is essential to meet wildlife management objectives.” However, the temporary use of GE crops will be considered on a case-by-case basis for habitat restoration purposes.
Ranking the Caribbean on Human Development
From Caribbean Journal
What are the most developed countries in the Caribbean, according to the United Nations Development Programme?
The UNDP just released its annual Human Development Report, which scores countries on a Human Development Index by looking at factors from life expectancy at birth and the mean number of years of schooling in a country to gross national income per capita and others.
Cuba led the region, ranked 44th in the world and the only Caribbean country in the “very high human development” group of countries.
The Bahamas led CARICOM countries in human development, ranked 51st in the world, just after Uruguay and ahead of Montenegro.
The rest of the region was ranked in the “high human development” category, with the exception of Guyana and Haiti, which were both in the “medium human development” category.
St Lucia had the largest year-to-year drop of any country in the region, falling four spots to 97th in the world, just after Jamaica and ahead of Colombia.
Jamaica itself fell three slots to 96th in the world, just after Albania.
A total of 187 countries were ranked on the list. (Note: only sovereign countries were ranked on the UN list).
For the full list of Caribbean countries ranked on the list attached
For more on this story go to: http://www.caribjournal.com/2014/07/31/ranking-the-caribbean-on-human-development/
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