iNews Briefs
Government gets extra money
Government has been given a short-term borrowing overdraft facility from the United Kingdom (UK) amounting to $16M that is available until June 2014.
This is in addition to the $30M overdraft facility they already have from the UK for the next four months.
Regulator takes over Axiom borrower
British legal regulator takes over Axiom borrower for ‘suspected dishonesty’
From OffshoreAlert
A law firm that borrowed at least £8.9 million from Axiom Legal Financing Fund was taken over and closed down today by Britain’s Solicitors Regulation Authority, which stated that “there is reason to suspect dishonesty”.
For more: http://www.offshorealert.com/bracewell-law-rohrer-and-co-intervention.aspx
Another church returns grant
The Wesleyan Holiness Church, West Bay, where ex-premier McKeeva Bush was a regular attendee, has returned a large part of the $1.3M grant it received from the Nation Building Fund. Because the fund was initiated by the ex-premier and allegedly supervised by him as to who received the grants, it was commonly known as the Bush Fund.
Wesleyan Holiness returned $728,364.83 of the grant giving the reason that their members were concerned about “negative publicity” the church had received and realised government couldn’t afford to give such a large sum.
Although some of the money had already been spent, including $250,000 for land adjacent to the church this would be paid back to government.
Detailed accounts were provided for all the money transactions relating to the grant.
To date four other Cayman churches have returned the grants they have received from the Nation Building Fund.
Dolphin Discovery forced to hand over stingrays
On Friday (12) Dolphin Discovery Dolphinarium in West Bay was forced to hand over their six stingrays, 5 males and one female, to the Department of Environment (DoE). This follows the passage of an amendment to the Marine Conservation Law to protect stingrays in Cayman Islands waters.
The DoE team of scientists and marine experts collected them from their captive facility at the Dolphinarium. They were then released in the North Sound Sandbar after first being held at a quay in the Morgan’s Harbour area where they were examined and certified as healthy.
Although DoE Director, Gina Ebanks-Petrie, was pleased as there are considerably fewer male rays at the Sandbar than females and the male numbers there have now been increased by six, she said experts were still not sure how well captive rays re-adapt when returned to their natural habitat.
The change of legislation has provided rays with across-the-board protection. The holding of stingrays and other types has been made unlawful.
Local scientists and those from overseas have continued to count the stingrays at the Sandbar, where the population has been reported as declining by at least 40% from the original population.
See iNews Cayman story published September 24th 2012 “Discovery of tagged captive stingrays sparks DOE call for legislation” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/2012/09/discovery-of-tagged-captive-stingrays-sparks-doe-call-for-legislation/
And story published October 1st 2012 “Dolphin Discovery stingrays to be released” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/2012/10/dolphin-discovery-stingrays-to-be-released/
Stingray census launched
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands – Scientists in the Cayman Islands are conducting a census of stingrays at a popular tourist spot to determine if their numbers are still declining.
Previous censuses at Grand Cayman’s North Sound found that the number of southern stingrays had dropped by about 40 per cent in recent years. It is unclear why the numbers are diminishing.
An average of 100 stingrays were reported from 2002 to 2008.
Mother to stand trial for ill treating daughter
After a social worker at the Family Support Unit made a complaint against a mother in October 2012 of cruelty to her 9-year-old daughter the 41 year old woman will now stand trial in March next year.
The mother, who is accused of willfully assaulting and ill-treating her daughter, causing unnecessary suffering to her health, denies the charge.
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is on bail until the trial.
Stepfather found guilty of rape
A jury convicted a 37 year old male from Cayman Brac guilty of raping his 12 year old stepdaughter between June and August 2008, and one count of indecent assault between November and March 2009.
The man was arrested in March 2012. This followed a report the stepdaughter had made to her brother and a friend of the sexual abuse she had suffered over four years.
She said she had lost count of how many times the abuse had happened that had commenced when her mother was off island. She said she had been too scared to tell anyone in case they didn’t believe her.
The man was found not guilty of rape between June and July in 2011 and not guilty of indecent assault between June and August in 2008.
There was not enough evidence to convict the man on three other rape charges.
Sentencing of the man will have a date set at another hearing at the end of August.
Bridger and Bulgin fight it out
Behind closed doors in Cayman’s Court of Justice, on Friday (12) Martin Bridger, the former senior investigating officer of the Tempura debacle, is fighting Cayman’s Attorney General, Sam Bulgin, to have the right to use documents in his own defence that Bulgin believes he shouldn’t have access to.
Stuart Kernohan, Cayman’s former Royal Cayman Islands Police Service Commissioner, is suing both Bridger and Bulgin in a wrongful termination lawsuit related to Tempura that has been ongoing for two years.
The Attorney general’s office has made a number of attempts to block Bridger’s documents coming into the public’s domain. All hearings have been made with doors locked.
Whatever is in these documents must be dynamite.
ECLAC urges rethinking of development in Caribbean
From Guardian Media
UNITED NATIONS—The executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, has called for the rethinking of development in the Caribbean “using equality and environmental sustainability as our compass.” Addressing a UN General Assembly high-level session on inequality, Bárcena said the world economic crisis has had a negative but not a dramatic impact on Latin America and the Caribbean.
“The main effect has been felt in terms of trade,” she said, adding that the region’s resilience to this situation is due to “countries’ macroeconomic prudence during the boom period, as well as the countercyclical policies implemented during the crisis.” Bárcena said that poverty and inequality have also fallen in Latin American and Caribbean countries, stating that while the 1990s were typified by rising inequality, “there was a turnaround in the region from 2003, relating to labour market developments.
For more on this story go to:
http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2013-07-13/eclac-urges-rethinking-development-caribbean
LatAm, the Caribbean Win Medals in Athletics Championship
Kiev, Jul 14 (Prensa Latina) Latin America and the Caribbean won today the three medals of the Men’s 200m at the 8th edition of the Cadet World Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine.
Jamaican Michael O’Hara won the golden medal, with 20.63 seconds, followed by Brazilian Victor Hugo Dos Santos and Cuban Reinier Mena, who achieved silver and bronze medals with 20.67 and 20.79 seconds respectively.
Mena thus added his second bronze award in word competitions, after winning the first one in 100m.
Besides the sprinter’s two medals, Cuba also won a golden medal through triple-jumper Lazaro Martinez and silver through javelin thrower Yulenmis Aguilar.
Nesta Carter clocks best in 100m at Madrid meet
From ibnlive
Madrid: Nesta Carter of Jamaica clocked a season’s best 9.87 seconds to win the men’s 100 metres at the IAAF World Challenge Meeting here.
Carter was a comfortable winner ahead of Americans Rakieem Salaam taking second (10.07 seconds) and Calesio Newman third in 10.10 seconds on Saturday. Antoine Adams of St Kitts and Nevis finished fourth in 10.14 and Kemar Hyman of Cayman Islands shared the fifth spot with Spain’s David Rodriguez in 10.15.
Carter is now the fastest Jamaican sprinter this year but behind American Tyson Gay’s 9.75 and just ahead of compatriot Asafa Powell’s 9.88.
In the women’s 100m, Carrie Russell of Jamaica finished fourth the ‘A’ race in 11.15 seconds as the top positions went to Americans Barbara Pierre (10.92), Shalonda Solomon (11.04) and Alexandria Anderson (11.07).
Sheniqua Ferguson of the Bahamas won the ‘B’ race in 11.33 seconds.
For more on this story go to:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/nesta-carter-clocks-best-in-100m-at-madrid-meet/406492-5-138.html
