Archive for July, 2012
Laziness is a killer say scientists
(BBC): A lack of exercise is now causing as many deaths as smoking across the world, a study suggests. The report, published in the Lancet to coincide with the build-up to the Olympics, estimates that about a third of adults are not doing enough physical activity, causing 5.3m deaths a year. That equates to about one in 10 deaths from diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and breast and colon cancer. Researchers said the problem was now so bad it should be treated as a pandemic. And they said tackling it required a new way of thinking, suggesting the public needed to be warned about the dangers of inactivity rather than just reminded of the benefits of being active.
The team of 33 researchers drawn from centres across the world also said governments needed to look at ways to make physical activity more convenient, affordable and safer. It is recommended that adults do 150 minutes of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, cycling or gardening, each week.
The Lancet study found people in higher income countries were the least active with those in the UK among the worst, as nearly two-thirds of adults were judged not to be doing enough.
Cops hope to net intern for scenes of crime
CNS): The RCIPS said it hopes that a local student will be considering a career with the police after she was placed with the Criminal Investigation Department working alongside Scenes of Crime staff as part of the police intern programme. Krsytin Carby is studying forensic photography in Miami, and was the, police said, an ideal candidate to be placed with the RCIPs. “I’m very interested in the forensic approach to solving crime,” she said. “I find it fascinating to see how the behind the scenes examination of DNA and fingerprints contribute to the overall criminal investigation strategies.
“It’s a vital part of police work and an area where I hope to specialise. That’s why I was delighted when I was offered a place with the RCIPS,”
Krystin added.
The RCIPS has 13 (thirteen) interns working in a variety of departments including Process, Human Resources and Fleet Management. All of the interns have been placed within departments that fit with their skills, studies and their aspirations for the future.
“All of our interns are doing a first class job, they are keen and they are committed to learning as much about the organisation as they can in the four weeks they will be working with us,” said Acting Chief Superintendent Marlon Bodden. “It was clear from the outset that there was only one place that Krystin should be with her skills in forensics and photography – that was Scenes of Crime. This is only her second week with us but already she has greatly impressed the staff she is working with.”
Bodden said the RCIPS sees the intern programme as an opportunity to showcase what the service does and as a way to encourage local people to join and see how applying their skills and studies in their chosen field, make a significant difference to community.
Young people pass through local refs course
(CNS): Twelve people have completed last month’s CIFA Referee Beginners Course including Three of Cayman U20 Women National players. Officials from CIFA said the certification could be the first step for the new referees to represent Cayman on the international stage. CIFA's Senior Referee Instructor Livingston Bailey said he was delighted to see young people participating in the course. He said they brought vibrancy and enthusiasm to the sessions. An advocate of succession planning, Bailey said the new refs would enhance Cayman's representation at the FIFA international level within the next three to five years.
Shanelle Frederick, Chelsea Brown and Kaela Ebanks were the three women to get their certificates which Bailey said would also enhance their interpretation of the laws of the game fostering a more positive environment with on field match officials when they are playing.
With the implementation of new FIFA regulations on the Organization of Refereeing in all FIFA Member Associations as at the 1st April 2011, Bailey added that the CIFA Refereeing Department is channelling its focus on the development of all sectors of refereeing.
He said special emphasis will be geared to the development of young referees by giving them the opportunities to officiate in grassroots and youth competitions, to enhance their skills and prepare them for the advanced levels of competitions.
“This process will indeed bring steady maturity to their development and create the gateway for their advancement to the FIFA International Panels where they can represent their country as great ambassadors,” Bailey said in a release from CIFA.
The presentation ceremony was held at CIFA Office on Wednesday 11 July where certificates were presented to the successful participants by one of Cayman's football pioneer and member of CIFA Referee Committee, Lenny Hew. Also receiving his certificate was Kenroy Willis, who successfully completed his referee basic training in December 2011.
Convicted murderer given further long sentences
(CNS): A West Bay man who was convicted of the murder of Carlos Webster in a West Bay Road nightclub in 2009 has been given a 20-year prison sentence for an attempted murder and a further sixteen years for possession of an unlicensed firearm relating to the same crime. The chief justice handed down the sentences to Devon Anglin (26) on Friday morning in Grand Court. The two prison terms concern the attempted murder of Christopher Solomon, who was hit in the stomach during the nightclub slaying, and the use of the handgun during the crime. Anglin is already serving a life sentence but after the introduction of the Bill of Rights in November, he will be entitled to apply for a tariff.
Meanwhile, Anglin has appealed the murder conviction, which is now set to go before the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal in November. However, he is expected to appear before the current appeal court session on 30 July because the crown is appealing Anglin’s acquittal in the case against him forthe murder of 4-year-old Jeremiah Barnes. The prosecution is hoping to secure a re-trial in that case after Anglin was found not guilty following a judge alone trial presided over by Justice Howard Cooke, a visiting retired judge from Jamaica.
The little boy was shot in the head and killed while sitting in the back of a car at the Hell Road Gas Station in West Bay in February 2010. Anglin was accused by Jeremiah’s parents of being the gunman who fired several shots while aiming for Andy Barnes, the child’s father.
In a separate case, Raziel Jeffers, who was convicted earlier this year of the murder of Marcus Ebanks and the attempted murder of four other men, will appear before the Court of Appeal on Wednesday to appeal his conviction and life sentence in that case. The 28-year-old man was found guilty after a judge alone trial before Justice Charles Quin based on the evidence of teen witness Adryan Powell, who was paralyzed as a result of the multiple gunshots he received on the evening of the shooting, and testimony from Jeffers’ former girlfriend.
Crown accused of delaying justice
(CNS): The cases involving two different gangs of men accused of being involved in recent bank robberies ground to a halt on Friday when defence attorneys accused the crown of delaying the process after it failed to review indictments or supply evidence against the suspects. The three men accused of conspiracy in the Scotiabank robbery were set to enter their pleas to the charges on Friday morning, however the failure of the crown to address problems previously highlight by the Grand Court resulted in the case being adjourned. Although on bail, Christopher Myles, Kevin Bowen and James McLean have not yet answered the charges against them.
Speaking on behalf of the group, defence attorney Nick Hoffman told the court that issues had already been raised previously before a Grand Court judge that the crown’s indictment against the three men was not properly drafted and needed to be reviewed. However, he said, since then “nothing at all had been done” by the public prosecutions office.
The presiding judge, Justice Paulette Williams, said she hoped that the delay was for the benefit of the defendants as she adjourned the case for two weeks. The three men are charged with conspiracy to rob the downtown branch of Scotiabank in May.
The daylight heist took place around 11:45am at the Cardinal Avenue branch of the bank. Three masked men, two of whom were armed with were believed to be guns, threatened staff and customers and fled with a sum of cash in a getaway vehicle waiting directly outside the bank. Police found the car abandoned in Bronze Road a short time after the robbery and the men were all arrested and charged around six weeks later.
Meanwhile, the case against the four men charged with robbing the Buckingham Square branch of Cayman National Bank last month as well as the WestStar TV customer service centre in May also failed to advance as a result of the crown’s failure to supply critical information. Hoffman described the situation as “unacceptable” as all four men are currently remanded in custody, and without the details of the case against their clients none of the criminal defence attorneys involved could make bail applications for their clients.
The defence attorneys raised concerned that fundamental documents were missing and the indictments were only served on Thursday, less than 24 hours before the men were due to appear in the Grand Court.
The case against the men is based on the evidence of another man who has been charged separately with being involved in the crime, in which the robbers were said to have stolen $500,000 in another daylight bank job at around 9:40am in the morning of Thursday 28 June.
The judge adjourned the case against David Tomassa, Andre Burton, George Mignott and Rennie Cole until Tuesday morning and ordered the prosecution to disclose the necessary documents to the accused men’s attorneys so they could make their bail application.
OMOV debate rolls on
(CNS): Despite the premier’s hopes that the referendum on one man, one vote would settled the issue of Cayman’s electoral system, the failure of the vote to bring a binding decision either ‘yes’ or ‘no ‘ when measured against the entire electorate has further fuelled the debate. The OMOV committee stated Friday that since government has dismissed the result as a ‘no’ even though 65% of those who voted said ‘yes’, the publicdebate will continue. Meanwhile, Ezzard Miller has said that he will be bringing a motion to the Legislative Assembly asking government to introduce one man, one vote and single member constituencies in George Town and Bodden Town.
The independent member for North Side told CNS that the voters in both these districts who came out to the polls voted more than two to one in favour of introducing OMOV, Since the people in these districts have made it quite clear that this is what they want, government should introduce the system there. He said he is preparing a motion which will be supported by the opposition member for East End, Arden McLean.
Miller dismissed Bush’s idea of two MLA constituencies, which he believes would see all voters having two votes in each one, because, using the current boundaries as confirmed in the 2010 boundary report, the amalgamation of North Side, East End and Bodden Town into one district would not have the support of the voters in those areas.
The OMOV committee said in a statement released on Friday that, given the result of the referendum, government should now be giving serious consideration to the implementation of one man, one vote.
The members also pointed out that for the premier to conclude that everyone that didn’t vote, voted ‘no’ was “misleading and irresponsible" and simply not supported by the factual result, as the voters who exercised their civic duty demonstrated by a wide margin their desire for single member constituencies featuring one man, one vote.
“It is disappointing to note therefore that the UDP government hastily dismissed Wednesday’s results,” the committee said. “Those results are the only reference tool by which the government should measure the wishes of the people. However, as we have witnessed with this government, when the results do not accord with their agenda, they resort to spin and confusion of the facts to continue to have their way. That is not democracy and therefore of necessity, the public debate will continue.”
The group said they were proud that just a handful of concerned people were able to galvanize the country and create history by being a part of Cayman's first ever "stand alone" referendum and hoped It had inspired others who want to participate in the main issues affecting Cayman and the lives of people here. “We will continue to pay close attention to the affairs of our country and express our opinions as we feel necessary,” the committee stated.
Miller, who spearheaded the grassroots campaign and the original goal of a referendum in November, hit back at McKeeva Bush on Friday in a radio broadcast regarding the result and the premier’s immediate dismissal after 5,631 people, or 65% or those who went to the polls, voted in favour of OMOV.
The North Side member said Bush was using the same “green coloured glasses” on this issue that he had applied to government's finances, which resulted in the failure to produce a budget.
“There is no legal, ethical, moral or sensible method that allows those who did not vote to be added to the totals of either the 'yes' or the 'no' vote to determine the winner,” Miller pointed out. “Nor can the 43% percent of the registered voters who did not take part in the process be declared the winners. It is not normal or rational to declare non-participants winners in an election, even when your analytical process includes the pagan deduction that dead persons voted 'no'.”
The vote was not a rejection of single member constituencies, Miller stated in his Friday evening Radio Cayman broadcast. In that circumstance the vote would have needed to achieve 50 percent plus 1 of the registered voters actually voting 'no', while only 19% actually did.
“I concede the 'yes' vote did not get 50 percent plus 1 of the registered voters. What the results clearly show is that two to one in 5 out of 6 electoral districts, people voted for the introduction of SMC and one man one vote.”
He added that the best either group could claim was that no binding decision was achieved by either.
The premier dismissed any idea of the result being advisory, as had been highlighted by the elections office prior to the poll taking place.Colford Scott had stated that given government’s position that 50% of the entire electorate was required to have a binding ‘yes’, the same position applied to ‘no’ and anything else would be advisory.
However, the premier concluded immediately on Thursday evening that the referendum was a binding ‘no’, even though the ‘no’ vote was less than 20% of the electorate and a far cry from the binding 50% plus one high bar his government has said it required when setting the referendum law.
Despite campaigning on the basis that the current electoral system was not broken so it did not need fixing, on Thursday evening Bush suddenly proposed an altogether new idea of nine two MLA constituencies.
He did not say whether voters would have one or two votes in such a system, but unless the boundaries were to be completely redrawn following the existing SMC maps from the 2010 boundary commission report, this would see eight districts on Grand Cayman. This would mean two in West Bay, three in George Town, a new district of Prospect/Red Bay and another new district in the Savannah/Pedro area and then the combination of Bodden Town, North Side and East End into a single district. Cayman Brac and Little Cayman would remain the same.
Bush has said that a committee will be formed to examine this proposal and other possibilities for the May 2013 elections when government must add three more seats to the legislature to balance out a new ministerial position in Cabinet.
See OMOV and Miller’s statement below.
Cops recapture prisoner
(CNS): A man who escaped from police custody Thursday has been arrested and is back in the police cellspolice say. Jeremy Claston Holness (30) escaped from his police guard at the Cayman Islands Hospital about 12:30pm on 19 July. He was arrested Friday evening on suspicion of escaping lawful custody Holness had been taken to the hospital because he complained of being unwell but he dodged his police guard and went on the run. The police said at the time that Holness was not a danger to the public. Following his re-capture the RCIPS offered their thanks to the community for its assistance in helping the police to detain the suspect once again.
‘Voters have spoken’
(CNS): Both the leader of the opposition and the independent member for North Side have called on the premier to listen to the people and implement one man, one vote in single member constituencies for the 2013 election. Releasing statements on Friday evening in response to the premier’s comments on Thursday regarding a new committee to examine the voting system, both men said the people had already indicated what they wanted. Alden McLaughlin said a significant majority of voters made it plain that they want single member constituencies and the premier should respect the voice of the people.
“We do not need more discussions, we do not need more committees, we do not need more campaigning or another referendum. All that is required is a simple amendment to the Elections Law,” said the opposition leader in response to the premier’s latest idea of introducing nine double-member constituencies.
Miller said the premier had taken an irrationalquantum leap when he assumed that all those registered voters who did not come to the polls would have voted 'no'.
“In North Side, I have been given several reasons by registered voters as to why they did not turn up to the polls,” he said in a radio broadcast on Friday evening. “These include: sick at home, sick in hospital, off island, never votes for personal or religious reasons, too drunk at the party to vote, could not decide how to vote. Not a single person gave the reason that their not voting would count as a 'no' vote."
Miller said that, unlike the premier, he had some difficulty in knowing that the dead would vote 'no' as the dead don't speak to him.
McLaughlin too took issue with the premier’s position that those who did not come to the polls should be considered 'no' votes. He said it was “disingenuous and grossly misleading” for the premier to claim the majority of people voted 'no'.
“In truth and in fact the 'yes' votes outstripped the 'no' votes by 2 to 1," McLaughlin said. “The reality is that if the premier had not manipulated the referendum process by creating an artificially high bar of 50% + 1 of registered voters instead of 50% +1 of votes cast, the referendum would have succeeded.”
The opposition leader said the premier’s dismissal of the wishes of 65% of voters in the referendum demonstrated the "absolute disregard and utter contempt” the UDP administration had for the people and how out of touch government was.
See both statements below. Read CNS Monday for more on the opposition's position regarding the referendum and the future of Cayman’s voting system.
Cayman bank accounts linked to organised crime
(CNS Business): The Mexican branch of HSBC is in the process of closing 20,000 accounts in the Cayman Islands believed to have links to organized crime, in the wake of a daming money laundering investigation by a US Senate watchdog committee. The accounts are worth an estimated $675 million, although the total assets in the Cayman accounts peaked at $2.1 billion in 2008. As part of a 335-page report, the result of a year-long Senate investigation, the committee found that HSBC Bank Mexico (HBMX), which held the Cayman accounts, “is a shell operation with no physical presence in the Caymans, and is managed by HBMX personnel in Mexico City who allow Cayman US dollar accounts to be opened by any HBMX branch across Mexico.” Read more on CNS Business
Belize mulls decriminalizing ganja
(Caribbean Journal): Belize’s Ministry of National Security has appointed a committee to evaluate and make proposals for the decriminalization of small portions of marijuana. The move, which was announced this week, was driven by “increasing evidence that the current legislation clutters the courts and the prison with primarily a marginalized segment of our population,” the government said in a statement. The committee said that it recognized that the proposal was “a sensitive issue,” and encouraged interested groups and individuals to express their views on the matter. Belize’s current laws treat the possession of under 60 grams of marijuana as a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to $50,000 and/or up to three years imprisonment.
The decriminalization proposal would involve up to 10 grams of marijuana, which would then be subject to fines, mandatory drug education and no imprisonment. Also proposed would be the provision that no criminal record would be kept in the first instance, and portions of the penalty be reserved for drug education.
The committee emphasized that the proposal was “not to legalize the offence, thereby purging it of all its penalties,” however.
“It is merely to reduce and regulate,” the committee said. “This is further supported by international trends towards decriminalization.”