iNews Briefs
Heavy police presence in East Kingston following deadly shootout
From Caribbean360
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Monday May 12, 2014, CMC – Police Sunday maintained a strong presence in eastern sections of the capital after residents took to the streets to protest the deaths of two men shot by law enforcement authorities on Saturday.
Police have since released the names of the victims – 23-year-old Shaneil Coombs, otherwise called “Gem Boy,” and Roshawn Grant, otherwise called “Dippa” – shot during a shootout with the police.
But residents have claimed that the men were not criminals as alleged by the police, and the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), which is investigating the incident, said a third man was killed prior to the other two.
INDECOM is urging residents to come forward with information that can assist the probe.
The police said they had recovered a Browning 9mm pistol and three rounds of ammunition during the incident.
The police are maintaining a strong presence in sections of East Kingston after residents mounted blockades in Rockfort and along Mountain View Avenue in protest at the killings.
Cayman Islands RCIPS Awards gala
500 Guests were present last Friday (9) at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, for the annual Royal Cayman Islands Police Service Awards gala.
The guests included Governor Helen Kilpatrick, Premier Alden McLaughlin and Deputy Governor Franz Manderson.
Commissioner of Police David Baines hosted the evening. Mater of Ceremonies were Stuart Bostock and Vicki Wheaton. The national anthem and national song were sung by eleven-year-old Melody Allenger.
The proceeds from the gala benefit the Police Welfare Fund that provides financial assistance to RCIPS members, their families and dependents in special circumstances not covered by public funds.
The evening is funded totally through the contributions of corporate and individual sponsors. No public funds are expended.
Dart Enterprises Ltd. was the Diamond Sponsor for the event, with Platinum Sponsors including the Caribbean Club, Diamonds International, Pinnacle Media Ltd., and the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman.
Edward Tinling-Miller was honored as Police Officer of the Year with police constable Kevin Bogle as runner-up.
British Virgin Islands breaks ground on cruise pier expansion
From Caribbean Journal
The British Virgin Islands’ cruise pier expansion project has officially broken ground and is now set to begin marine works, according to the British Virgin Islands Ports Authority.
For now, one side of the pier, including dredging works, along with the southern boardwalk and revetment are anticipated to be completed in January 2015, according to project manager Dion Stoutt.
The expansion is part of a major cruise push for the British Virgin Islands.
“The marine works are in line with the expectations by both Norwegian Cruise Line and Disney Cruise Line that signed berthing agreements with the Authority earlier this year,” said Claude Skelton Cline, managing director of the BVI Ports Authority.
The British Overseas Territory signed an agreement with Disney and Norwegian at the beginning of this year that reportedly guaranteed 425,000 annual cruise visitors to the territory by 2015, according to Premier Dr Orlando Smith.
Of that number, Norwegian will guarantee 350,000. while Disney will guarantee 75,000.
Cline said that one side of the pier has to be completed for Disney’s Fantasy ship on Jan. 7, with the other side needing to be complete for NCL’s Breakaway on April 29, 2015.
Both ships are 4,000-passenger vessels which cannot currently call to the territory’s existing cruise pier in Tortola.
In a statement, the Ports Authority said the project, which is being done by the government of the British Virgin Islands, was “expected to create a unique and modern cruise pier facility that is environmentally compatible and sustainable, that delivers a memorable and world-class experience.”
Royal Caribbean: we like big ships and we cannot lie
By Justin Bachman From Bloomberg Business Week
Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL) is doubling down on the mega cruise ship. The company currently operates the two largest cruise ships, Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, with a third Oasis-class vessel set to join its fleet in spring 2016.
Today, at a ceremony in France to lay the keel for that third ship, the cruise line announced that it has ordered a fourth Oasis ship, to be completed in 2018. The third Oasis will be even larger than the first two, with space for 6,300 passengers. The two finished Oasis ships—which are constructed around themed “neighborhood zones”—carry about 5,400 passengers and 2,700 staterooms.
Two months ago, at a lunch with Bloomberg Businessweek in New York, Royal Caribbean chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fain said his company had not sought to be the line with the largest ships when it began designing the first two Oasis vessels. Their size, he says, is a function of the various activities the company tries to incorporate aboard its ships to appeal to passengers of all ages. Royal Caribbean ships have amenities such as rock-climbing walls, surf pools, bumper cars, a faux food truck, and a miniature version of Manhattan’s Central Park.
More helpful to the cruise lines financially, new cruise ships—especially the largest ones with an abundance of activities—command higher fares. “Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas continue to be in a class by themselves both in terms of guest satisfaction and financial returns,” Fain said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is a reflection of their success.”
Both new Oasis ships will be built at the STX France (011810:KS) shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. Neither has been named, and Royal Caribbean has yet to disclosed the ports from which they will sail.
Bridger calls for public inquiry into Cayman Islands Tempura debacle
It is almost like the pot calling the kettle black.
Martin Bridger, the former Chief Investigating Officer of Operation Tempura, called for a “public inquiry” into the 5-year-old debacle known as Operation Tempura.
Bridger said this at last week’s OffshoreAlert conference in Miami.
iNews Cayman is not against the public inquiry it is just who called for it.
See iNews story today “Operation Tempura UK Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) disclosure”.
NOTE: Operation Tempura was a MPS investigation into alleged corruption within the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service.
Feds accuse TSA supervisor of having sex with minors in Dominican Republi
From FoxNews.com
A New York TSA screening supervisor is facing up to 30 years in prison after being accused of flying to the Dominican Republic to have sex with underage girls.
Vernon Lythcott, 48, was nabbed Friday trying to board a plane to the Caribbean country at New York’s JFK Airport.
A federal complaint sworn by an agent of the Department of Homeland Security charges the Brooklyn man with having sex with two 15-year-old girls on a trip last January.
The New York Post reports that the teens told investigators they went with Lythcott to a beach and had sex with him in the water. Lythcott gave the victims $80, court papers say.
After his arrest, investigators found photos of the victims on his cellphone.
Lythcott was arraigned on a charge of having illicit sex with a minor in a foreign country in the federal court in Brooklyn. He was released on $250,000 bond.
Cayman Islands Annual Science Fair
The Cayman Islands 8th Annual Science Fair took place last Saturday (10) at the Arts and Recreation Centre (ARC) at Camana Bay.
The Rotary Club of Cayman hosted the event.
89 primary and high school students took part in the fair that aimed to interest students in science and the scientific method of problem solving.
Mother dies on Caribbean Airlines flight on way to meet daughter
From Caribbean360
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Saturday May 10, 2014, CMC – An elderly woman died while on a Caribbean Airlines flight from Trinidad to Barbados early Saturday.
A passenger on board BW456 told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the woman complained of chest pains, following which flight attendants made an appeal for a medical professional.
However the woman was pronounced dead by the doctor who was on board.
According to the eyewitness, the woman who lived in Trinidad, was going to St. Martin to visit her daughter for Mother’s Day.
4 Drug traffickers sentenced to jail by Cayman Magistrate
4 men pleaded guilty to drug trafficking when they were caught with 170lbs. of ganja near the Divi Tiara on Cayman Brac last September.
The men, Derrick Anthony Adlam, Noel Alexander Samuels, and Clenval George Grant – all Jamaican nationals received sentences of 35 months, 24 months and 18 months respectively, whilst the fourth man, a Caymanian, Jason Phelon McCoy, received 30 months.
A fifth man, said to be the master mind of the operation, Andres Anderson, has pleaded ‘Not Guilty’ and his trial is scheduled for November.
Dominican agents target Pakistani trafficking ring
From Business Standard
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said that they have arrested a citizen of Pakistan and six others accused of running a sophisticated migrant smuggling operation in the Caribbean country.
William Munoz Delgado, director of the National Department of Investigations, said the ring smuggled people from Pakistan and the Dominican Republic to the US and Canada through the Caribbean country. He identified the leader of the group as a Pakistani national, Mehmood Majeed Khan.
Among those detained was an employee of the Dominican civil registry whom Munoz said helped members of the organization obtain counterfeit documents.
The arrests follow a series of raids in three cities led by the department’s anti-terrorism unit, Munoz said.
Authorities confiscated fraudulent identification and other documents during the raid and said additional suspects are being sought.
Munoz said the investigation is ongoing, and that officials are trying to determine how many migrants were allegedly trafficked.
Christians cry loud to stop terrorism in Syria
From English Farsnews
TEHRAN (FNA)- Metropolitan of Mexico, Venezuela and Central America and the Caribbean Islands for the Roman Orthodox Church Antonius Shidrawi said Christians’ cries around the world were continuous tirelessly, appealing for repelling Takfiri extremism and stopping support for the western-backed terrorist groups who were committing systematic crimes in Syria.
“The USA allies with terrorism through sending weapons to the Takfiri terrorist groups in Syria,” Antonius Shidrawi said in a SANA’s report.
Metropolitan Shidrawi called upon Washington in a statement directed to the US Ambassador in Lebanon David Hill “you are supporting those who do not know what freedom is…The Christians are being slaughtered and displaced from their homeland in Syria, while you are sending weapons to the Takfiri terrorists under the name of opposition.”
Metropolitan Shidrawi addressed the US Ambassador, saying, “It has been more than a year since two archbishops were kidnapped in Syria, and we have not heard a single word criticizing this act by your state whatsoever neither have we heard that it would pressure its ally, Turkey, to release them, but rather we hear that it will continue to send weapons to the armed opposition.”
In the same context, Eastern and Western Greek, Armenian, Coptic, Maronite and Catholic churches in Austria urged for stopping supporting terrorists in Syria and the Middle East, protecting minorities and monitoring extremists, Salafist movements and sleeper cells in Europe.
This came during prayers held by the churches Saturday for releasing the kidnapped archbishops Yohanna Ibrahim, the Syriac Orthodox archbishop of Aleppo, and Paul Yazigi, the Greek Orthodox archbishop of Aleppo, who were abducted by the armed terrorist groups last year.
The churches warned of the danger of the terrorists on the Austrian and European societies and the civil peace in Europe and the whole world.
For more: http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930221000589
Cayman woman pleads not guilty to possession of unlicensed firearm
Julia Lewis has denied the charge of possession of an unlicensed firearm and was bailed to appear next Friday (16) in order for attorney’s to find a vacant trial date.
Lewis is alleged to have been inside a car with two other men involved in a collision on Shamrock Road close to the Countryside Shopping Village in Savannah on Friday 16th August 2013.
Lewis was arrested along with other occupants of the car after the three had allegedly tried to flee and officers found a .38 hand gun.
Maxi Priest to visit Jamaica for Caribbean FashionWeek
From Jamaica Gleaner
British reggae crooner Maxi Priest will perform live at Caribbean FashionWeek (CFW) 2014, scheduled for June 11 to 16.
Maxi Priest joins a long list of international celebrities and superstars who have appeared and performed at the event since its inception in 2001. Other CFW notables include Kelly Rowland, Eve, Nia Long, Brian McKnight, Morgan Heritage, Machel Montano, Joe, Sheila E. and Johnny Gill.
The performance of Maxi Priest takes place on the closing night of the event, Sunday June 15.
CFW returns for its 14 staging this year with a new format, a slew of innovations, chief of which is the new online shopping experience, shopcaribbean.com, and a renewed, even more enlarged focus on Caribbean style.
The event is the largest, most strategically important and far-reaching fashion event in the region.
Developed to a high international standard, CFW showcases the best of the Caribbean’s designers, as well as other world-regarded stylists from various parts of the globe.
Participants
Approximately 50 designers from 20 countries participate each year at the event, which plays host to the world’s fashion press, supermodels, celebrities and superstars of music and movies, all complementing the brilliant fashion collections on show.
For more: http://mobile.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140511/ent/ent3.php
Below-Normal Hurricane Season
While the heart of hurricane season is not until the tail end of the summer season in August and September, roughly 10 named tropical storms and five hurricanes are expected in the Atlantic Basin this season.
According to AccuWeather.com Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski, of those five hurricanes two major hurricanes are predicted to make landfall in the U.S.
Although this season’s tropical storm and hurricane count is expected to be statistically below average, it only takes one storm to create massive destruction, as Hurricane Andrew proved in August of 1992 when it struck Florida and Louisiana.
Despite reduced activity in the Atlantic Basin, the Pacific Basin will be extremely active this season with 19 tropical storms and 10 hurricanes predicted.
Cool for Great Lakes
With their second highest ice coverage on record, the Great Lakes reached their peak ice coverage on March 6, 2014, with 92.19 percent of the lakes encrusted in ice. Despite the spring season, as of April 16, the lakes were still 38 percent covered by ice.
“There are no years in the last 30 years that are even close to that, so it’s very unusual this late in the season to have that much ice coverage,” Pastelok said.
The extent of the ice coverage still present on the lakes will make water temperature recovery very difficult and, as a result, may have a huge impact on the summer weather for the region including some of the U.S.’s major cities, such as Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo, N.Y.
“It’s going to affect the overall atmosphere around the region,” Pastelok said. “It may be a bit on the cooler side.”
In addition to cooler weather for the area, the lagging lake temperatures could lead to less severe weather near the lakes, as storms track farther south.
For more: http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/us-summer-2014-weather-forecast/26033298
Oil spill reported in Caribbean Islands
From New Straits Times
PHILIPSBURG: Environmentalists in the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten are investigating an oil spill that occurred Friday near a popular tourist area.
The nonprofit St. Maarten Nature Foundation said the spill was reported near the Simpson Bay area.
It is unclear what caused the spill or how much oil was released.
The foundation said it alerted government officials and will patrol and send divers to the area to determine the extent of the damage.
Several high-end resorts and the island’s international airport are located on Simpson Bay. – AP
For more: Oil spill reported in Caribbean Islands – Latest – New Straits Times http://w1.nst.com.my/latest/oil-spill-reported-in-caribbean-islands-1.593141#ixzz31SzZ5VOH
IICA warns Caribbean in wake of new US legislation
From KNEWS
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) said Latin America and the Caribbean will need to implement policies that guarantee the region’s agricultural sector stability and greater legal security following the enactment of the United States Farm Bill.
In a technical note sent to Caribbean Agriculture Ministers, IICA Director General Víctor M Villalobos, said the Southern Cone countries will feel the impact of the new regulations especially hard, while other nations will be affected to a lesser degree.
The new act implements an agricultural safety and risk coverage network for US farmers that will offer them guaranteed profit margins and larger production volumes, and at the same time allow them to compete in international markets under advantageous conditions.
IICA said this development will undermine the ability of major Latin America and Caribbean countries commodity producers and exporters to compete with their US counterparts, while tropical countries will enjoy the benefit of cheaper agricultural imports.
Rafael Trejos, a specialist with IICA’s Centre for Strategic Analysis for Agriculture (CAESPA), explained that the Southern Cone countries would be hardest hit, while the Central American and Andean nations would benefit from lower prices of the products they import.
For more: http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2014/05/12/iica-warns-caribbean-in-wake-of-new-us-legislation/
Maritime Training For At-Risk Youth In Mt Salem
From Jamaica Gleaner
One hundred at-risk youth in Mt Salem, Montego Bay, are to be trained under a joint project being initiated by the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI) and Member of Parliament for West Central St James Sharon Ffolkes-Abrahams.
According to Ffolkes-Abrahams, the CMI would train the youth for shipping jobs, including some positions on cruise vessels.
“I have spoken with the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI) and we are opening June 1, 2014. I have put aside $1.3 million from my Community Development Fund (CDF) to make sure that young people get a chance to attend this programme,” Ffolkes Abrahams said.
“The CMI is making preparations to satisfy the demand of the pending logistics hub, so when you have completed your training you will get a job. That is something that is assured,” she added.
She said the CMI project would not be adequate to deal with the needs of the residents and as such, a new training centre would be established in the community.
“So you see the post office that is here, the parish council has approved it for our use so that we can open it as a training institute right here in Mount Salem. We are going to call it the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Training and we are looking at having it open for September this year,” Ffolkes-Abrahams said.
The MP said she would be seeking to have repairs and clean-up work done for the centre under the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme, adding that residents of the community would be employed to work on the building.
For more: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140510/western/western5.html
Panama prepares for Caribbean Tourism
By Joey Bonura From pty life
The Panamanian tourism sector is focussing on the Caribbean side of Panama this year, which is a part of the country that remains largely undeveloped compared to the Pacific side.
There will be three new hotels being constructed in the Colon province. One of them will be part of the Decameron Hotel chain and construction will take place in Santa Isabel where another hotel is also set to open. The third hotel will be constructed in front of Isla Grande.
This part of the country remains largely undeveloped for tourism due to the infrastructure and and connectivity. But with the construction of the 26 kilometer road connecting Santa Isabel and Cuango, things are starting to change.
The Panama Tourism Authority is predicting 2.3 million visitors to Panama this year and at the end of the year there will be 16,000 hotel rooms in Panama City and 30,000 in the entire country to support the boost in tourism.
