Archive for March 4th, 2011
Cops charge West Bay Tortuga robbers
(CNS): Police brought charges against another two robbery suspects on Friday in connection with a hold-up that took place at the Tortuga Rum store in West Bay earlier this week. The men, aged 22 and 33, are accused of entering the store by the Cracked Conch restaurant armed with what appeared to be a gun and making off with an undisclosed sum of cash. The men have been charged with robbery and are expected to appear in court on Monday, 7 March. The incident occurred at around 2:30pm on Monday, 28 February, on a busy cruise ship day in West Bay’s tourist hub close to the Cayman Turtle Farm, the Cayman Car Museum and Dolphin Discovery. The men threatened staff before fleeing the scene but no one was hurt and no shots were fired.
The men were reportedly spotted fleeing the scene of the crime in a green Hyundai motor car, which police stopped shortly after the robbery on Easterly Tibbetts Highway when three men were arrested. Police confirmed that the third man had now been released from custody.
This is the second group of suspect robbers police have charged this week following yesterday’s court appearance of two men charged with the mugging of tourists at Barefoot Beach in East End last month.
Canadian university plans to kill 7 Cayman turtles
(Vancouver Sun): Endangered green sea turtles that have been part of a University of BC research project for more than 10 years will be killed sometime this spring. Bill Milsom, head of UBC’s zoology department, said seven turtles from Cayman will be killed in order to complete a study into turtle diving depths. The turtles are at least 10 years old and can live to be 30. The study was designed to measure the impacts of climate change on the animals and to help countries develop policies around fishing. Milsom said it would be impossible to free the turtles, which were born in captivity and brought to Canada from the Cayman Islands Turtle Farm in 1997 and 2003.
A spokesman for an animal rights group said it makes no sense to kill an endangered species and questions why the turtles can’t be spared to "live out their final days in peace."
"At a time when there are all sorts of efforts to save these animals, and they’re being hit by oil spills and beach development, UBC is killing them," said Brian Vincent, from the group called Stop UBC Animal Research.
Vincent said his group was told first about UBC’s plan to have the turtles killed by someone at the university, who believed the decision was prompted by the pending demolition of the building where they are housed in a tank measuring 10 metres by three metres.
Truman Bodden Track Meet revived
(CIAA): The Cayman Islands Athletic Association will be staging the 2011 renewal of the Truman Bodden Track Meet on Saturday March 12, 2011 at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex starting at 9:00am. The Meet, which is sponsored by noted Attorney-at-Law, Truman Bodden, has been staged for over 20 years and is the second major Meet of the Association’s calendar. Bodden has been an ardent supporter of track and field for well in excess of two decades as well as of the Association, whom he has assisted in obtaining corporate sponsorship from other local business houses.
With the Inter-Primary Track & Field Championships now looming it is expected that there will be a swelling of local athletes competing at this Meet in preparation for these Championships.
Athletes expected to participate at this Meet include Carifta Games 2010 Gold medalist Chantelle Morrison, Ashleigh Nalty, Gizelle Wright, Melinda McLean, Kristen Dixon, Anissa Owen, Travis Webb, Mauricio Terry, Troy Long, Lloyd Barker, Reynaldo Kelly-Vernon, Jerome Bodden, Tristan Von-Kirchenheim, Andrew Frederick, Philip Ritch, Dwayne Anglin, Mitchell Forbes, Carl Grant and Alex Pascal, as well as veterans from past Championships such as Robert Ibeh, Rhymiech Adolphus, and David Hamil. Much interest will also be focused on the younger rising athletes such as Jouri Haylock, Annikay Anderson, Casey Edwards-Faud, Ryan Kirkaldy and 2010 Caribbean Under 11 girls 100m and 200m gold medalist Mikayla McLaughlin, Under 15 Boys Shot Put silver medalist Jonathan Frederick and Open girls 800m bronze medallist Tiffany Cole.
Age groups eligible to participate are: 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17 and over.
Events to be contested are: Long Jump, High Jump, Shot Put, Discus, Javelin, Turbo Javelin, Ball Throw, 100m Hurdles, 80m, 100m, 150m, 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1500m.
The Meet promises to be an exciting one, as many of the athletes seek to improve their performances in the sprints, jumps, throws, hurdles and mid distance events.
Completed registration forms should be emailed to caymanathletics@gmail.com or returned to Liz Ibeh 925-4763, Coach Williams 925-1943, Coach Yen 925-6917 or Coach Wason 916-6966.
Registration closes on Thursday 10 March.
Cayman may join regional marine trade group
(CNS): According to All at Sea Magazine, a regional maritime publication the Cayman Islands could be joining forces with Cuba and Jamaica to form Caribbean Marine Trades Association that would serve as an umbrella organization to promote yachting tourism to the Central and Western Caribbean. Neville Scott from Scotts Marine and the man behind the new Barcadere marina in George Town reportedly met with Commodore Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich from Cuba’s and Dale Westin from the Port Authority of Jamaica during the recent Miami International Boat Show to draft a strategy to handle a predicted influx of boats heading south.
With the anticipated lifting of the US.travel ban on Cuba and evidence from the US Coast Guard and Florida vessel registration that there are more than 600,000 boats in Florida alone that are capable of making the 90 mile sea voyage from South Florida to Cuba. The lifting of the restriction would open a floodgate of vessels that would inundate Cuba’s marinas.
The representatives reportedly agree that this would create a new Central Caribbean cruising ground consisting primarily of Cuba, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica. The formation of a marine association to promote the area as a new cruising ground. Currently the Eastern Caribbean is the significant yachting destination from the US and British Virgin Islands south to Trinidad and Tobago, plus Puerto Rico, the Bahamas along with Turks and Caicos.
Report:80% of Spanish firms operate via tax havens
(Eurodad): A new report by the Spanish observatory on Corporate Social Responsibility, which comprises several civil society organisations has found that all companies listed on the Spanish stock exchange operate directly or indirectly through jurisdictions which are considered opaque by the Financial Secrecy Index of Tax Justice Network. The report entitled Corporate Social Responsibility in the annual report of companies in the IBEX35 reveals that more than 80% of companies that are part of the benchmark stock market index (IBEX 35) in the Spanish stock exchange operate through tax havens. The jurisdictions with the highest concentration of Spanish company subsidiaries are the Netherlands, Delaware, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Puerto Rico and Panama.
The report finds that 28 Spanish companies have as many as 272 subsidiaries in 27 secrecy jurisdictions, from where they can operate without disclosing relevant financial information about their activities – such as the taxes they pay, profits they make and people they employ in the countries where they operate.
The jurisdictions with the highest concentration of Spanish company subsidiaries are the Netherlands, Delaware, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Puerto Rico and Panama.
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No glory for NASA climate rocket
(BBC): The US space agency’s (Nasa) attempt to launch its latest Earth observation mission has ended in failure. The Glory satellite lifted off from California on a quest to gather new data on factors that influence the climate. But about three minutes into the flight, telemetry indicated a problem. It appears the fairing – the part of the rocket which covers the satellite on top of the launcher – did not separate properly. This would have made the rocket too heavy and therefore too slow to achieve its intended 700km orbit. "All indications are thatthe satellite and the rocket are in the Southern Pacific Ocean somewhere," said launch director Omar Baez. The loss of Glory is a huge blow to the Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) as well as Nasa.
The company makes the rocket and assembled the Glory satellite for the space agency.
Exactly the same problem befell Nasa’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) in 2009. It too launched on a Taurus XL rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, and again the fairing failed to separate properly.
On that occasion a "Mishap Investigation Board" was established to determine the root cause of the nose cone’s failure and to make recommendations to remedy the malfunction.
Hurricane recovery key part of weather meeting
(CNS): A speedier recovery in the wake of a hurricane or other natural disasters will be at the centre of two seminars next week forming part of the 33rd Session of the Regional Hurricane Committee (HC33) which is taking place in the Cayman Islands this year. Cayman Islands National Weather Service (CINWS) Director General Fred Sambula said an all-day Disaster Risk Reduction in the 21st Century conference is planned for Monday, 7 March preceding the HC33 and Hurricane Preparedness and Business Continuity will take place Friday, 11 March.
“The Disaster Risk Reduction conference is mainly a technical session targeting hydrological and meteorological experts, as well as some disaster managers from North and Central America and the Caribbean some of whom willbe on-island for HC33,” Sambula said. “The conference will look at building regional, technological capacity and cooperation to support forecasting with a multi-hazard approach or to handle a number of natural disasters at the same time. It will focus mainly on supporting national governments as they plan for disasters associated with climate change and other weather and climate-related issues.”
Sambula explained that the session dealing with hurricane preparedness will seek to engage businesses and governments in the area of hurricane disaster planning, before during and after the hazard with emphasis on measures to reduce the impact on their bottom-line and recover more easily in a hurricane’s aftermath.
“We are looking forward to the participation of the local business community and agency heads, for when businesses and government are both ready, then the nation as a whole is more prepared,” he added.
The HC33 will take place at the Ritz-Carlton between 8 and 11 March.
Lawyer says OFCs are not information black holes
(CNS): Jeremy Walton, a partner at local offshore firm Appleby has said that the commonly held belief in the world’s major countries that Offshore Financial Centers are impenetrable fortresses when it comes to obtaining information for criminal and civil investigations is just not true. The Confidential Relationships (Preservation) Law is a "particularly misunderstood" tool for information-gatherers, Walton has revealed ahead of his planned appearance at the Offshore Alert conference next week. Walton told the offshore watchdog that the law’s principal purpose is not to avoid disclosing information, as some seem to believe, but to protect service providers against breach of confidence claims by their clients accused of fraud.
"It is a myth that offshore financial centers are information black-holes and that it is practically impossible to obtain information or relief for the victims of fraud," he told OffshoreAlert. "The myths of secrecy in offshore jurisdictions are debunked by a consideration of the practical remedies and relief available from offshore courts to obtain information and freeze assets for the purpose of pursuing fraud claims."
Offshore Financial Centers stand up well in comparison with big countries when it comes to obtaining information, Walton stated. "OFCs not only have adopted the same legal mechanisms which were created in onshore centers like London, their courts have gone even further to develop stronger and more sophisticated remedies for deserving claimants," he added.
The lawyer said that the ‘post-sale service’ which must be provided to purchasers of offshore products extends to the quality of the court system and the ability to obtain swift justice when those products are used as vehicles for fraud or any other wrongdoing. "In some OFCs a claimant can obtain a free-standing asset-freezing injunction which may not be available in either the UK or the USA," he stated.
Walton and other offshore practitioners will go into detail about the legal information gateways that exist in OFCs during a session entitled ‘Offshore but not Off-Limits: How Fraud Victims Can Obtain Relief in OFCs’ at The 9th Annual OffshoreAlert Conference, which will be held at The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach in Florida on April 4-6, 2011.
Trees return to primary school after long wait
(CNS): Six and a half years after Hurricane Ivan took most of the trees from the school and then the road development took the rest, ten new trees have finally been planted at Sir John A Cumber Primary School in West Bay.Last month Dart Cayman Islands and the Department of Agriculture donated the trees which have been planted around the perimeter of the school yard that will in time provide shade for the youngsters at. The Green Buttonwood, Pink Poui, Neem and Swietenia mahogani will also help raise awareness among the students about the critical importance of trees to the Environment.
The kids also got a lesson in how to prepare the hole and move the trees as the students planted six of them with the help of Dart’s nursery team -Starling Kelly, Clarence Duncan and Dave William. Assistant Principal Lorna Lumsden said it was a good way for the students to make a difference to the environment, not to just sit back and allow someone else to act but to take the initiative.
Sir John A. Cumber Primary School indicated that building awareness on the importance of conserving our environment is very important, and the school hopes to continue to partner with organisations such as Dart Cayman Islands to do so. They also are planning to encourage people to plant trees promote their importance to the preservation of the environment.
Store clerk pistol whipped
(CNS): In Cayman’s latest armed robbery one of the two suspects pistol whipped a member of staff with his gun before he and his accomplices left the store. Police said that at around nine o’clock on Thursday evening, 3 March, two masked men entered the DVD Store on Walkers Road. One of the men was armed with what appeared to be a handgun. The robbers threatened the store clerk and demanded cash. Despite receiving money the man with the gun hit the cashier with the gun before leaving the store, though no shots were fired and the cashier did not require any medical attention. The suspects are described as both being around 5’5" in height. They were wearing dark clothing and had their faces covered. (Photo by Dennie Warren Jr)
This is now the 14th robbery of 2011 since a report of a street mugging on Wednesday could not be verified by police. This brings the country’s current robbery rate to one incident every 3.8 days.
Anyone with information about the crime, or who saw the suspects before the incident or leaving the scene, should call George Town police station on 949-4222 or the confidential Crime Stoppers number 800-8477 (TIPS).