Archive for August 3rd, 2010

UN climate Czar calls for action from governments

UN climate Czar calls for action from governments

| 03/08/2010 | 0 Comments

(UPI): The international community must take firm measures to overcome the potential effects of climate change, a UN official told delegates in Germany. Christiana Figueres, the newly appointed executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told delegates at a climate conference in Bonn, Germany, that world governments must make an ambitious effort to protect the environment."As individuals, as governments, as a global community, we must all exceed our own expectations, simply because nothing less will do," she said Tuesday. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a July report that human activity was a contributor to climate change and that global warming was a real phenomenon.

 

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Mormon founder bible on sale for $1.5m

Mormon founder bible on sale for $1.5m

| 03/08/2010 | 0 Comments

(KSL.com): The rarest of rare books, a one-of-a-kind family Bible, has surfaced in Salt Lake City. It’s going on sale at an asking price of $1.5 million. That’s because its original owner was evidently Joseph Smith Jr., the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "It is in fact, unique," said rare books dealer Ken Sanders. "It’s the only copy in the world, the family Bible belonging to the founder of Mormonism and his first wife, Emma Hale Smith." Sanders has been keeping the book locked up in a safe at his Salt Lake City store while he looks for a buyer.

 
He said the 1831 edition of the Bible was originally purchased by Joseph Smith Jr. when the family lived in Kirtland, Ohio. It’s been out of sight for many years, apparently cherished for generations by descendants of Emma Hale Smith. In 1979, the Smith family sold it to a friendly outsider, Buddy Youngreen. He published photos of it in the LDS "Ensign" magazine in 1984.
 

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Appeal allows hedge funds access to Lehman cash

Appeal allows hedge funds access to Lehman cash

| 03/08/2010 | 0 Comments

(The Lawyer): The Court of Appeal has ruled that hedge funds whose money was not properly ringfenced when Lehman Brothers went into administration will have access to client money deposited with the UK division of the bank, Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (LBIE). The judgment overturns a decision handed down by Justice Briggs which stated that money not segregated when theinvestment bank collapsed would not be accessible. The appellate court has referred the case back to Briggs to give further guidance on how the client money funds should be traced, prompting warnings of further disputes over exactly what funds should be included in the money pool and who is entitled to a share.

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Scientists plumb depths to ask how many fish in the sea

Scientists plumb depths to ask how many fish in the sea

| 03/08/2010 | 0 Comments

(The Guardian): It has been the biggest and most comprehensive attempt ever to answer that age-old question – how many fish are there in the sea? Published today, a 10-year study of the diversity, distribution and abundance of life in the world’s oceans attempts just that. The Census of Marine Life, which hopes to paint a baseline of marine life, estimates there are more than 230,000 species in our oceans. A team of more than 360 scientists around the world have spent the past decade surveying 25 regions, from the Antarctic through the temperate and tropicalseas to the Arctic to count the different types of plants and animals.

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Fit heart can slow brain ageing, US researchers say

Fit heart can slow brain ageing, US researchers say

| 03/08/2010 | 0 Comments

(BBC): Keeping your heart fit and strong can slow down the ageing of your brain, US researchers say. A Boston University team found healthy people with sluggish hearts that pumped out less blood had "older" brains on scans than others. Out of the 1,500 people studied, the team observed that the brain shrinks as it ages. A poor cardiac output aged the brain by nearly two years on average, Circulation journal says. The link was seen in younger people in their 30s who did not have heart disease, as well as elderly people who did. The participants with smaller brain volumes on magnetic resonance imaging did not show obvious clinical signs of reduced brain function.

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United States names and shames tax dodgers

United States names and shames tax dodgers

| 03/08/2010 | 5 Comments

(Swissinfo): The United States authorities are wasting no time in meting out swift punishments on tax cheats who used Switzerland’s UBS bank to hide their assets. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has named and shamed 17 offenders on their website with sentences ranging from tough fines and prison time. The Swiss parliament recently ratified a deal to hand 4,450 UBS client names to the IRS. One watch manufacturer was put behind bars for ten months, a children’s toy dealer will spend six months under house arrest after serving three months in jail while a yacht broker received two months in prison and five months of home confinement.

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Major smash claims life

Major smash claims life

| 03/08/2010 | 91 Comments

(CNS): Updated —  The woman killed in the  major collision along the Esterley Tibbetts highway yesterday morning was FederAnn Faustino (24). The accident took place near Lakeside Condos at around 12:30 Tuesday 3 August. Three people were involved  in the accident Faustino, her boyfriend who was driving a Honda Civic and a teenage girl who was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser. Both vehicles suffered extensive damage indicating the severity of the car smash. Police have not yet revealed the cause of the crash but have said two people are currently assisting police with their enquiries.  (Photos by Dennie Warren Jr)

Officers from the RCIPS are appealing to anyone who may have been in the area at the time of the collision, came up on it after or have any information, no matter how insignificant it may seem. Call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477 (TIPS). 
 
Investigating Officer PC Watts of the Traffic Management can be contacted at 926-3136 or Traffic Management Unit at 946-6254.

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Child suffers suspected barracuda attack

Child suffers suspected barracuda attack

| 03/08/2010 | 22 Comments

(CNS): An 11-year-old boy is recovering in the hospital after an attack by what was probably a barracuda on Sunday. The child has suffered a serious hand injury after being bitten while playing in the ocean at public beach by what he said was a very big fish, News 27 reports.  The boy says he was so frightened that he thought it was a dream, but when he look down at his hand and saw that it was bleeding, he realized it wasn’t and he was taken to the hospital. A Department of Environment spokesperson said it was likely to be a barracuda going after bait fish and it would have bitten the child by mistake as such attacks are very rare.

 

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Hospital unveils art in healing garden

Hospital unveils art in healing garden

| 03/08/2010 | 0 Comments

(CNS): A new piece of work by local award winning artist Gordon Solomon has been unveiled at the Cayman Islands Hospital. The Health Services Authority (HSA), with the assistance of the ‘Do Something Cayman Campaign’, recently upgraded the exterior landscaping of the facility, which included the creation of a healing garden with Solomon’s artwork as a focal point.  CEO Lizzette Yearwood said this new mural is an important part of the garden. “We wanted to provide a peaceful and serene environment filled with hope and life. I think that this mural, combined with the fantastic landscaping job done recently completed by dozens of volunteers, achieves that result,” she said.

The theme of the mural is ‘Victory’ and Solomon said he drew upon biblical references in creating the concept. “The Cayman Islands has a rich history of Christianity which made that anatural choice, especially given the significant life events that take place inside a hospital,” he explained.
 
The central image of the mural is the hand of the divine, God, with one individual reaching out to God’s hand in a time of need. Another individual is pictured inside a white lily, praying.
 
The mural was entirely hand painted by Solomon who drew the outlines of all the figures Friday evening and painted all of the main outlines and fine details himself. Six other volunteers worked under his direction on Saturday to fill in some of the larger areas. The paint used in the creation of the mural was a regular semi-gloss exterior and donated to the hospital by Cayman Coating.
 
“The hospital gave me total freedom in designing this piece,” Solomon said. “I was free to offer my own interpretation of the space and the physical, emotional, and spiritual healing that it is intended to assist. I am hopeful that it will be a source of comfort and inspiration to those in need.”
 
A winner of The Cayman National Cultural Foundation’s Artistic Endeavour Award in 2002, Solomon is a well-known Caymanian artist and musician. He has exhibited work in the National Museum, Art at Governors and The Visual Arts Society and his solo show at the Westin Casuarina Hotel received much critical acclaim.

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Court is PMFL’s exception

Court is PMFL’s exception

| 03/08/2010 | 17 Comments

(CNS): Following criticisms made in a government audit that the court was not fully complying with the Public Management and Finance Law, officials have denied falling foul of the legislation as it is exempt from certain provisions. The audit, which was conducted in 2008 by the Internal Audit Unit, suggested that it was difficult to determine if the court had delivered the work (or outputs) for the financial year end June 08 as it was supposed to because of the way it was billing Cabinet. Auditors said the court’s invoices were not directly matched with outputs. However, the court has stated that because of the nature of its work the PMFL provides for the court to report its performance in a way that does not impinge on the independence of the judiciary.

The details of the Internal Audit Unit’s report were revealed as a result of an FOI request made by the Caymanian Compass. In its news report last week it suggested the court had not complied with the PMFL when reporting to government, which the court denies. Delene Cacho, the Courts Administrator, explained that when the PMFL was first proposed the potential for government to control the court’s budget was seen as possibly undermining the independence of the judiciary, which would be unconstitutional.
 
“The obvious potential that such a proposal had for, at the least, the appearance of interference with the independent operations of the courts and the administration of justice led the chief justice to propose changes to the law, and, consequently, certain changes were made,” Cacho said.
 
Therefore, when the PMFL was passed it exempted the Judiciary from its operations in these terms, as set out in Section 80(3):
 
“This Law shall apply to the judicial administration except that the outputs and the details of the ownership performance specified in the annual budget statement of the judicial administration shall be specified so as to ensure that they do not impinge on the constitutional functions or constitutional independence of the judiciary.”
 
The law therefore allows the judiciary and court staff to administer justice on a case-by-case basis according to the merits of each case, without having to consider whether the output of judicial and administrative services may be regarded as justifying the budget allocated for the courts. “Any other application of the law that could interfere with the due and proper administration of justice would be unconstitutional and wrong,” Cacho noted.
 
Although it is very difficult to predict the outputs of court staff because their job is to support the unpredictable work of the judges, court staff recognised the notion of an “output” as the basic measure by which the budget allocations are made and the performance of civil servants measured under the law. As a result, Cacho said, the Judicial Administration has over the years implemented systems and endeavoured to comply with the law by providing the information required in as relevant a manner as possible.
 
“There is absolutely no basis for apprehending that the law is being flouted or that there is any impropriety in the management of the courts’ financial resources,” Cacho stated. adding that the audit had concluded that the agency’s output reporting systems required some improvements and to establish appropriate systems to accurately report performance.
 
Cacho stated that it was a question of the “manner in which financial data may be accessed or presented,” but the audit did not suggest that financial data didn’t exist or was either inaccurate or misleading.
 
The Judicial Administration or the courts is headed up by the chief justice and employs around 50 people. The courts operate a Judicial Enforcement Management System to capture data on cases filed by police, attorneys and the general public. “A report can be generated at any time to provide statistical information,” the courts said in its management report to the audit. revealing that it could demonstrate how it was meeting its objectives if required.

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