iNews Briefs
Cayman Cuba talks may achieve “considerable cost savings”
Although there has been no official press releases issued by the Cayman islands government relating to the new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding treatment and repatriation of Cuban refugees arriving in the Cayman Islands, the Cayman Compass is reporting Cuban diplomats have said the MOU “is likely to be completed in late autumn and signed thereafter”.
The Compass also quotes Deputy Chief Officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Wesley Howell, saying, “with faster repatriation of irregular migrants, the number of days irregular migrants are detained will be reduced, which will reduce direct costs associated with detaining the migrants.”
See Cayman Compass story at: http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2014/09/29/Cuba-MOU-may-be-signed-by–end-of-year-/
More than 30 feared dead on Japan volcano: police
Otaki (Japan) (AFP) – More than 30 hikers are feared dead after being found in “cardiac arrest” near the peak of an erupting volcano in Japan Sunday, police said, using a term usually applied before doctors are able to certify death.
Rescue workers found the individuals near the summit of 3,067-metre (10,121-foot) Mount Ontake, which erupted around noon on Saturday.
“We have confirmed that more than 30 individuals in cardiac arrest have been found near the summit,” a Nagano prefecture police spokesman told AFP without elaborating further.
Rescuers were planning to bring four of them down the mountain by later tonight, Jiji Press said citing police sources.
Some 550 soldiers, police officers and firefighters were involved in a large-scale search-and-rescue operation in a bid to save dozens of hikers who were thought to have been stranded on the volcano since it erupted without warning spewing ash, rocks and steam into a sunny autumn weekend busy with tourists and hikers.
A suffocating blanket of ash up to 20 centimetres (eight inches) deep covered a large area of the volcano, had forced up to 150 to seek refuge in mountaintop shelters at one point.
Local officials believe 45 to 49 hikers sheltered overnight in cabins on the popular mountain, although details remained unclear.
The mountain is popular among hikers particularly in late September as leaves turn their colours.
The Cayman Islands Unlike Festival was well liked
The Cayman Islands held its very first Unlike Festival – a three day event – from Friday (26) with a cocktail reception at the National Gallery, live performances, artist booths and short film screenings at Camana Bay where most of the events took place.
The event was staged by UWC Cayman Islands in collaboration with Friends of Film Cayman (FoF) and the international UNLIKE Festival.
All proceeds from the event will go toward the charitable foundation’s scholarship programme that ensures a need-blind selection process based entirely on merit for all Caymanian UWC scholars.
There was also a Panel Discussion on Filmmaking, with local co-director, Badir Awe, of “The Devil You Know,” and also featured the local debut of Frank E. Flowers’s film, “Metro Manila,” co-written with Oscar-nominated director Sean Ellis.
The consensus of opinion from the festival attendees was positive and the artists echoed this.
Married couples now a minority in US
From Newsmax
Married couples have become a minority in the United States during the past few years, while those married pairs with children comprise just one in five households.
Married couples living together without children accounted for 29.1 percent of U.S. households in 2012, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. That’s about the same as in 1970.
But married couples living together with children accounted for just 19.6 percent of households, down significantly from 1970 when the figure was 40.3 percent.
That means married couples living together, with or without children, accounted for 48.7 percent of households. In 1970, the figure was 70.6 percent. It dropped to 60.8 percent in 1980, to 56.1 percent in 1990, and 52.8 percent in 2000. Married couples were a minority in 2010, comprising just 49.7 percent of households.
In 2012, women living without a mate accounted for 15.2 percent of households, while men living without one comprised 12.3 percent. “Other family households” accounted for 17.8 percent, mostly unmarried couples living together, with or without children, and to a lesser extent married couples living apart.
The proportion of single-person households has risen from 16.2 percent in 1970 to 27.5 percent.
“Most of the increase in people living alone comes from men,” Bloomberg Businessweek observed.
“In the 1970s, a man on his own was pretty rare, making up only about 5 percent of households. Now such households account for more than 12 percent.”
The consistently decreasing percentage of Americans who are married is surely related to the rising percentage of U.S. babies born to unwed mothers. As the Insider Report disclosed last week, 36 percent of the generation of Americans born from 1993 through 2012, who are beginning to turn 21 this year, were born to an unmarried mother.
For more: www.newsmax.com
90 Cayman Island students sign up for SOY Club
The Cayman Islands Save Our Youth Foundation’s Save Our Youth Club has seen the enrollment of 90 students.
At a ceremony at the John Gray High School last Friday (26) student members received their membership certificates and pins from Education Minister Tara Rivers and School Principal, Lyneth Monteith.
The idea behind the club is to empower students and give them a voice.
The SOY Foundation seeks to spotlight deserving youths who, while hard working, well behaved and earnest, are not always named on school honour rolls or for top athletic achievements.
How skin pigment protects us from UV rays
From The Siasat Daily
To protect the body from the dangerous ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun, skin pigment converts UV radiation into harmless heat through a rapid chemical reaction, a study says.
“In this way, the pigment disarms the energy in the UV light and prevents it causing harmful chemical reactions,” said Villy Sundstram, a professor of chemistry at the Lund University in Sweden.
Pigment in skin and hair comprises two different types of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin.
Eumelanin makes people develop a sun tan and gives colour to brown and black hair, whereas those with red hair and pale skin have high levels of pheomelanin.
“We found that eumelanin converts harmful UV radiation into heat with almost 100 percent efficiency,” Sundstram pointed out.
“The chemical reaction is incredibly quick, taking less that a thousandth of a billionth of a second,” Sundstram explained.
What happens in detail in the chemical reaction is that a hydrogen ion – a proton – is ejected from the pigment at the same moment the UV light reaches the pigment molecule.
The chain of events could be likened to the melanin getting rid of the energy of the UV light by shooting a proton projectile very quickly.
This projectile in turn gives off energy to the surrounding membrane tissue in the form of heat, thus converting dangerous UV radiation into harmless heat, the findings showed.
“By understanding how the body naturally protects itself against UV light, we can develop better sun protection products based on the same principles,” Sundstram maintained.
“This would provide better protection against skin cancer,” he emphasised.
The study appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
For more: http://www.siasat.com/english/news/how-skin-pigment-protects-us-uv-rays
Complaints of loud music heard at Cayman Islands licensing board meeting
Complaints of alleged loud music against Cayman Cabana, Kings Sports Centre and Royal Palms in violation of their liquor, music and dance licenses were heard during the annual meeting of the Cayman Islands Liquor Licensing Board last Thursday (25)
The board said it would take time to consider all the complaints before making their decision.
Police officer shot in Ferguson
From Business Insider
Washington (AFP) – A police officer was shot in the arm in Ferguson, Missouri, where the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen and a heavy police response triggered riots and national outrage.
St. Louis County Police Department spokesman Brian Schellman confirmed the shooting to AFP but declined to detail the officer’s condition, saying he was en route to the scene.
Local television, however, said the officer was shot in the arm.
Ferguson has seen large protests take place since Michael Brown, 18, was shot dead on August 9 by a white police officer.
The college-bound teen was shot at least six times by police officer Darren Wilson and his body was left in the street for several hours before it was removed.
Violence rocked Ferguson — a St. Louis suburb of 21,000 with an African-American majority and an overwhelmingly white police department and town council — prompting Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to briefly call in the National Guard to quell protests.
Some demonstrators complained that police used undue force against peaceful protests.
For more: http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-police-officer-shot-in-ferguson-2014-9#ixzz3Ee5BwrWt
Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto breaks marathon world record
From Business Insider
Berlin (AFP) – Kenyan runner Dennis Kimetto set a new world record in the Berlin Marathon on Sunday, with an unofficial time of 2hr 02min 57sec.
He became the first man to run under 2hr 03min and his time was well inside the previous record of 2:03.23, set over the same course last year by his compatriot Wilson Kipsang.
Kimetto, 30, is from the Eldoret in Kenya’s Rift Valley region — a part of the country that has produced some of the most dominant distance runners in history.
He was working as a farmer in an impoverished rural area before he took up running in his mid-20s, joining the training group of Geoffrey Mutai — a Boston, Berlin and two-time New York marathon champion and the former holder of the unofficial world best, a 2:03.02 set in Boston.
His first major win came in Nairobi’s Half Marathon in 2011, and he went on to finish second behind his training partner Mutai in the Berlin Marathon in 2012.
His 2:04.16 was the fastest marathon debut in history, and notable as he is one of a new breed of Kenyan road racers who do not have a track pedigree.
In 2013 he won the Tokyo Marathon, setting a course record of 2:06.50, and then the 2013 Chicago Marathon in a course record of 2:03.45 — where he also beat Emmanuel Mutai into second place.
Bahamas police investigating two deaths following separate incidents at sea
From caribbean360
NASSAU, Bahamas, Monday September 29, 2014, CMC – Bahamian law enforcement authorities are investigating two incidents over the weekend resulting in the deaths of a 51-year-old man and a 70-year-old American woman.
Police said that the 51-year-old man was on a fishing trip with his two sons on Saturday when one of his sons fell overboard.
“The victim attempted to rescue his son and apparently drowned during the process. The victim was taken ashore and pronounced dead by the island’s local doctor. An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death,” the police said in a statement without identifying the man.
In the other incident, the police said a 70-year-old American female was found floating in waters in Grand Bahamas while on a snorkeling expedition on Saturday.
“CPR was administered and EMS personnel was called to the scene. She was later pronounced dead by doctor,” the police said, adding that both incidents are under investigations.
Science shows why real space battles would be more Asteroids than Star Wars
By Jon Fingas From engadget
You’re probably aware that most sci-fi space battles aren’t realistic. The original Star Wars’ Death Star scene was based on a World War II movie, for example. But have you wondered what it would really be like to duke it out in the void? PBS is more than happy to explain in its latest It’s Okay To Be Smart video. As you’ll see below, Newtonian physics would dictate battles that are more like Asteroids than the latest summer blockbuster. You’d need to thrust every time you wanted to change direction, and projectiles would trump lasers (which can’t focus at long distances); you wouldn’t hear any sound, either.
For that matter, even close-up combat might not happen. Given the sheer distances and the limits of the speed of light, it might look more like classic naval warfare, which was defined by limited ship-to-ship communication and long-range shots based on estimates. It wouldn’t make for riveting entertainment, then, but that’s fine — despite the name, sci-fi is more about telling a good story than maintaining absolute realism.
For more: http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/28/physics-in-space-battles/?ncid=rss_truncated
Racist slurs and arson threats as billionaires battle for Bahamas beachfront property
From Caribbean360
CALIFORNIA, United States, Monday September 29, 2014 – A longstanding verbal brawl between two billionaires over beachfront property in the Bahamas is picking up steam in the United States after its heated debut in a Bahamian court.
American billionaire hedge fund magnate Louis Bacon is embroiled in a blazing row with Canadian clothing mogul Peter Nygard, his neighbour in the Bahamas. So much so that he instructed an employee to burn down Nygard’s house, according to court papers filed in Los Angeles.
Bacon, the founder of New York hedge fund Moore Capital Management, was moved to torch Nygard’s estate five years ago after the clothing tycoon refused to sell him the prized parcel, court papers allege.
According to the lawsuit, which cites a conversation between employees of the two battling billionaires,
Bacon ordered an employee to “find a way to burn Mr Nygard’s ‘****ing house down.”
Although Nygard admits in court papers that “the cause of the fire is unknown,” two weeks after the conflagration, a Bacon representative said to a Nygard employee: “See what I told you,” court papers allege.
Nygard’s allegations are his first major legal thrusts in the US as the smouldering feud reignites on the mainland after burning through the Bahamian courts.
While the testy tycoons were firing off claims in a Bahamas court, Bacon installed four “large, military-grade” speakers at the property line and pointed them at Nygard’s bedroom nearby, blaring “ear-piercing noises” whose aim was “solely to annoy Mr Nygard and embarrass him in front of his guests,” court papers allege.
Caribbean Suezmax rates boosted by tight tonnage, hot West Africa market
From Hellenic Shipping News
Activity in the West Africa Suezmax market remained at a high boil Friday and the heat was felt in the Caribbean, where freight rates hit a six-week high, shipping sources said.
Suezmax rates in West Africa have increased by Worldscale 15 in two days to w67.5 for the UK Continent voyage basis 130,000 mt. Meanwhile, the Caribbean-US Gulf Coast run basis 130,000 mt was assessed at w80 Friday, up w7.5 from Thursday.
The last time rates were at that level was August 13.
The run on ships in Africa put more pressure on a Caribbean position list that was already short, with only one vessel scheduled to be in the region through the first 10 days of October, market sources said.
“West Africa is getting hot and ships are getting taken out there,” a shipbroker said. “So, the number of ballasters is not as plentiful. The number of ships in the Caribbean is extremely small, so whoever needs a ship there will have to pay for it.”
The shipbroker said tonnage in the Caribbean will remain tight through October and shipping rates could go much higher.
“The way things are going, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for us to be at w100 in a matter of a week or so,” he said.
Another broker was also bullish, but said a large amount of Aframax tonnage could dampen things.
“It could move higher, but rates might be constrained by the Aframax market, which is at w77.5,” he said.
Source: Platts
