Archive for April, 2010
Half hour exercise a day helps treat depression
(Telegraph): Researchers found that a workout reduces stress and anger and boosts the sense of physical wellbeing. They claim physical exercise should be more widely prescribed as a treatment to tackle depressive or anxiety disorders. Professor Jasper Smits, a psychologist, at the southern Methodist University in Dallas said that physical therapy could be prescribed instead of or as a supplement to medication. "Exercise can fill the gap for people who can’t receive traditional therapies because of cost or lack of access, or who don’t want to because of the perceived social stigma associated with these treatments," he said.
World’s deepest sea vents found in Cayman trough
(BBC): What are believed to be the world’s deepest undersea volcanic vents have been discovered off the coast of the Cayman Islands. The vents, known as black smokers, were located over three miles down in the Cayman Trough. The volcanic chimneys spew out water hot enough to melt lead. Marine biologist Dr Jon Copley part of the team that discovered them said: "Seeing the world’s deepest black-smoker vents looming out of the darkness was awe-inspiring. Super-heated water was gushing out of their 2-storey-high mineral spires, more than 3 miles beneath the waves." The vent’s depth and isolation has raised hopes that new and exotic forms of life may be found basking in the warmth of the superheated mineral-rich water.
Selita gets fired from TV game show as sprinter walks
(CNS): Cayman’s supermodel Selita Ebanks was fired from Celebrity Apprentice last night after the girls lost the challenge. Having beaten the guys for two weeks in a row, the women’s team found themselves facing Donald Trump as the losers and the world’s most famous boss fired Ebanks as he said she lacked "that fierce business instinct and not aggressive enough". Ebanks was not the only celebrity on the show that seemed less than enthusiastic about winning the game. Last night Sprinter Michael Johnson left the cast citing a family matter, Sharon Osbourne ‘called in sick’, Cindy Lauper spent most of the episode in Washington and Bret Michaels was distracted by family health problems.
Man avoids life sentence in child molestation case
(Naples News): A 57-year-old Florida man, and father of a Caymanian, has been convicted of molesting two young girls in the US. Wayne David Smith (left) pleaded to two counts of lewd fondling and was sentenced to two years in a state prison followed by four years of sex-offender probation after entering into a plea agreement. The mother of the two victims denied Smith’s contentions that they filed the charges to get $32 million they believe he has stashed in the Cayman Islands. Smith’s son, David Smith, who is Caymanian, was also previously charged with molesting girls but was acquitted. It was a trial with allegations of sex and millions of dollars.
The prosecution called it a family secret involving sex between relatives, while the defence contended one of the two relatives claimed she’d been molested by the two men up to 14 years ago just to get her hands on $32 million and better her chances at winning her lawsuit against them.
In May, a Collier Circuit jury acquitted David Smith, a father of five, who walked out a free man after facing life in prison on two counts of capital sexual battery.
World’s deepest undersea vents discovered
(LiveScience): Beneath the Caribbean Sea a remotely controlled vehicle came upon the world’s deepest hydrothermal vents, where super-heated mineral-rich water gushes from chimney structures onto the ocean floor. The black smokers, named for how they spew out an iron sulfide compound that’s black, sit 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) deep in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean. While black smokers are the hottest of the undersea vents, white smokers are cooler and often contain compounds that are white in color. Until now, the deepest known vents had been found some 2.6 miles (4.2 km) below the sea surface.
Cuts could improve efficiency says governor
(CNS): The governor has said the decision by Cabinet to allow the civil service management to make the cost cutting decisions is not a cop out and that the administrative arm of government should look at the 2010/11 budget target as an opportunity to improve efficiency. Duncan Taylor said the scale of the cuts that have been made to personnel should mean there will be no enforced redundancies but that jobs will be lost through natural wastage. He confirmed it was a Cabinet decision to cut the budget and set a specific target for government to spend which has been left to the deputy governor and the civil service senior management to decide how best to achieve the cost cuts and make the service more efficient.
delivering services under the circumstances.
Department of Environment continues lionfish battle
(CNS): The Department of Environment says there are now over 300 divers and snorkelers trained on the course developed by the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) and certified by the Marine Conservation Board to catch and remove lionfish from Cayman waters, and between them they have removed over a 1,000 fish. The battle to control these invasive and aggressive fish is a tough one but the DoE has said that, having begun to address the fish’s numbers early in Cayman waters, despite their widespread invasion of the wider Caribbean region, it is still possible to control the numbers in local waters. (Photo by Alex Henderson)
SPIT cops back with full time RCIPS contracts
(CNS): Police have confirmed that a number of former UK police officers who have worked in Cayman before “in specialist roles” have been employed by the RCIPS but have not confirmed if Richard Oliver is the new head of the police anti-corruption unit. Oliver worked with the special police investigation team (SPIT) on the discredited Operation Tempura and the unresolved Operation Cealt and was involved with the prosecution of Deputy Commissioner Rudy Dixon. He reportedly also played a role in the case against Lyndon Martin. Both Dixon and Martin were found not guilty in trials last year. Dennis Walkington, another member of SPIT, is also understood to have been offered a permanent position within the RCIPS.
Operation Tempura began in the Cayman Islands when the former governor, Stuart Jack, announced the presence of Scotland Yard in Cayman in March 2008. The then police commissioner Stuart Kernohan, the deputy commissioner Rudolph Dixon and a chief superintendent John Jones were suspended from their jobs and places on required leave.
The investigation began as a result of suspicions by employees of Cayman Net News that their boss, Desmond Seales, was in a corrupt relationship with Deputy RCIPS Commissioner Anthony Ennis. SPIT said Ennis was exonerated early in their investigation but the UK cops continued to investigate what they said were both unrelated and related matters of potential corruption. The investigations resulted in the unlawful arrest of a local judge, the arrest of former police inspector Burman Scott, the sacking of Kernohan and failed prosecutions against Dixon and Lyndon Martin, a former Net News employee.
Jones was given his job back last year and cleared of suspicion but despite the not guilty verdict at his trial last year, Dixon remains on required leave on full pay. Both Kernohan and Scott have filed suits against the RCIPS and the SPIT officers claiming significant damages, which have yet to be settled.
Richard Dawkins: I will arrest Pope Benedict XVI
(Times Online): Richard Dawkinds, the atheist campaigner, is planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain “for crimes against humanity”. Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.
Turks & Caicos civil service salaries to be cut by 10%
(Jamaica Observer): In a letter to civil service staff on Tuesday, chief executive officer of the interim government, Mark Capes, informed all public employees in the Turks and Caicos Islands that public service salaries and wages for all staff, plus certain allowances, excluding housing, will be cut by 10 per cent. This reduction will take effect, for wage earners, on 16 April and, for salaried staff, at the end of the month. Overtime will now be allowed only in life threatening or other strictly essential circumstances. "By providing over five and seven weeks’ notice respectively, I hope this will give you time to adjust your personal finances as necessary," Capes said.