iNews Briefs
Cayman Islands beauties won’t show off after all – this year.
Even though the Miss Cayman pageant was announced as taking place this year after 3 years of absence, organisers have said it has been postponed until 2015.
Nicole Broderick, deputy chairperson of the Miss Cayman committee, said the committee is projecting that the Cayman pageant will be held in January 2015, a few months later than what was originally planned.
This is said to be due to budget constraints with the Ministry of Tourism.
Jamaican policeman kills brother-in-law following argument
From Caribbean350
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Monday August 25, 2014, CMC – A Jamaican policeman has been held for killing his brother-in-law during a domestic dispute late Saturday.
The cop, whose name has not been released, was held in the western parish of Westmoreland after he reportedly shot and killed Christopher Thomas, 41.
The police report that Thompson, a farmer, was told that the policeman – his brother in law, had hit his daughter.
Residents say an argument developed during which the policeman shot Thompson several times.
Thompson was rushed to hospital where he died.
The cop was taken into custody.
The Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) will probe the matter.
Boston’s Caribbean Festival has a tragic start
By Boston Fab From thefabempire
The usual merriment of Boston’s Caribbean Festival began with the tragic loss of Dawnn Jaffier, a college graduate and active youth city worker who was just 26 years-0ld. Reports claim that Jaffier was an innocent bystander to shots that were fired and hit her in the head early Saturday morning. She died from her injuries. Another young woman a block from her, sustained less threatening injuries and is still being treated. Police detained two individuals and arrested one. They are still unsure which and if one of these young men were Dawnn’s shooters.
This is a loss not only for her family, but for our city.
We are very saddened and our prayers go out to her family.
You can support the family and their funeral costs by giving funds to their Go Fund Me page at: http://www.gofundme.com/dgmyms
For more: http://thefabempire.com/2014/08/24/bostons-caribbean-festival-has-a-tragic-start/
Cayman Islands DEH add small battery collection to recycling
The Cayman Islands Department of Environmental Health’s (DEH) has added small batteries used in cellphones, cameras, pagers, two-way radios, calculators, small cordless tools, and other personal digital devices to their recycling programme.
This is in addition to the department’s current programme of collecting lead-acid batteries used in cars, boats, heavy equipment and other large vehicles. The Ministry of Health, Sports, Youth & Culture (HSY&C) and the DEH are urging everyone to support recycling.
The recycling process offers several benefits: Conserves energy since it requires less to produce new products from recycled materials. Saves natural resources that are sometimes irreplaceable. Keeps the environment cleaner since there is less waste caused by pollution. Reduces the amount of garbage sent to the landfill. Reduces carbon foot print. Allows the public to play its part in helping save the environment.
For further information on recycling, contact Tania Johnson at 743-5952, or by visiting the DEH website at: http://www.deh.gov.ky/portal/page?_pageid=4541,1&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
Puerto Rican Catholic priest pleads guilty to child exploitation
From Caribbean360
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Monday August 25, 2014, CMC – The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency says a suspended Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to child exploitation charges for taking a minor on a cruise with the intent to engage in criminal sexual conduct.
Israel Berrios-Berrios who pleaded guilty in court on Thursday was arrested on May 13 at his residence in Naranjito, Puerto Rico, following an indictment that charged him with transporting a minor with the intent to engage in sexual activity.
Prosecutors charged that Berrios-Berrios transported a 15-year-old male minor to Miami, Florida, where they took a four-day cruise to the Bahamas.
“While on the cruise, Berrios-Berrios engaged in lewd acts with the minor,” prosecutors claimed.
Angel M. Melendez, special agent in charge of HSI San Juan, said “the arrest and guilty plea of this man are especially disturbing, given the position of trust he occupied.
Since 2003 more than 10,000 individuals for crimes against children in the United States including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children.
Cayman Islands Complaints Commissioner keeps her job
Cayman Islands Complaints Commissioner Nicola Williams has been reappointed for another year.
She confirmed the reappointment last Friday (22).
This will take her current contract to August 2015.
Australia: Mid-flight incident forces pilot to make emergency landing
From Sydney Morning Herald
A pilot flying between Bankstown and Cowra had to make an emergency landing in a paddock on Monday afternoon after he became involved in an incident with an 82-year-old passenger.
Police say the pilot was forced to restrain the passenger. Sources say a brawl broke out between the two men when the passenger tried to take control of the Beech 76 fixed-wing aircraft.
It is believed the 23-year-old pilot was an employee of Basair Aviation College in Bankstown. The men did not appear to know each other before the flight, a police spokeman said.
The pilot reportedly made a “pan-pan” distress call shortly before making an emergency landing in Oberon, near Bathurst, just before 3pm.
“A pan call means the pilot is in trouble and needs help, but is not in a life-threatening situation,” an aviation expert told Fairfax Media.
No one was injured during the landing, however the 82-year-old man was taken to Westmead Hospital with head and facial injuries.
The 23-year-old pilot was also taken to a local hospital suffering from shock.
The aircraft sustained minor damage during the landing.
For more and to see video: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/midflight-incident-forces-pilot-to-make-emergency-landing-20140825-108acq.html#ixzz3BPGplBJW
Cristobal’s pelting rains lash southeast Bahamas
By Ezequiel Abiu Lopez and David McFadden From newsobserver
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Slow-moving Tropical Storm Cristobal lashed parts of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands with heavy rainfall on Sunday, and one man died and two other people were earlier left missing when they were caught up by swollen rivers on the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The man who died was drowned when he tried to drive his pickup truck across a rushing river in the Dominican Republic’s Hato Mayor, a province northeast of the capital of Santo Domingo, said Juan Manuel Mendez, the country’s emergency operations director.
The two missing people were swept away late Saturday by a river that burst its banks in the western Haiti port town of Saint Marc. “We’re still looking for the bodies,” said Luckecy Mathieu, a civil protection coordinator.
For more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/08/24/4092934/tropical-storm-cristobal-forms.html#storylink=cpy
Tingyi Cayman Islands to Buy Taiwan largest Cable TV Operator CNS
From 4-traders
TAIWAN, August 25, SinoCast — The Wei family from Taiwan, a controlling shareholder of noodle maker Tingyi Cayman Islands Holding (SEHK: 0322), intended to acquire Taiwan’s largest cable TV operator China Network Systems (CNS) at about USD 2.4 billion from MBK Partners, disclosed people close to the matter.
The move needs the approval of the Taiwan regulator. After the transaction, CNS will own debts of about USD 1 billion.
CNS owns 1.2 million subscribers and captures an about 20% market share.
In 2010, MBK tried to sell CNS to a subsidiary of Want Want, but the transaction cannot be reached due to unsmooth regulatory approval. Want Want is China’s largest rice cake manufacturer and owns a media group in Taiwan.
Dominican student in US wins award for research proposal
From Caribbean360
ROSEAU, Dominica, Thursday August 21, 2014, CMC – Ghislaine Toussaint-Green a Ph.D. student studying in the United States has won an award for her research proposal on early intervention in Dominica.
Toussaint-Green who is studying International Psychology at the Washington DC campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology , was one of nine Graduate Research Forum (GRF) winners from all locations of the school.
GRF is an opportunity for students to give poster-style presentations to each other and faculty, gaining experience and feedback at different stages of development.
Toussaint – Green’s winning presentation “Benefits of Early Childhood Education: Does Early Intervention and Parent Education Detect and Prevent Early Childhood Delays?” came during the Washington, D.C. Campus’ first GRF.
She believes the research could assist Dominica.
“I have worked in the field of Early Intervention for the past six years and often thought of how early intervention and prevention could benefit Dominica,” she told Domincanewsonline.
“This research, if funded, would provide an early intervention home visiting program in Dominica and research would be conducted to see if children’s development improves as a result of early intervention,” she said.
IMAGE: GHISLAINE TOUSSAINT-GREEN (CREDIT: GHISLAINE TOUSSAINT-GREEN/FACEBOOK)
Cayman Islands banking ‘common,’ Rauner says
By Kurt Erickson H&R Springfield Bureau Chief From Radio RAGE
It’s no secret that Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has made his opponent’s substantial wealth the main theme of his campaign.
From Bruce Rauner not releasing his complete tax records to his businesses sheltering money in the Cayman Islands, Quinn will continue harping on the $53 million man’s Montana-size wallet until the last vote is counted Nov. 4.
For his part, Rauner has tried to combat the obvious class warfare going on here. During the colder months, he wore a Carhartt jacket to emphasize an everyman approach to his campaign.
He drives a Harley, wears a cheap watch and says he likes to drink a beer and burn a steak when he’s hanging out at one of his ranches out West.
Last week, however, in the fallout of another report on his bank accounts in the Caymans, Rauner showed why he may have trouble connecting with voters of, let’s say, lesser financial means.
In trying to explain why it makes sense to put money in the offshore tax haven, Rauner said it’s not sinister or evil, and it makes financial sense.
“It’s common practice,” he told reporters at an event in Springfield.
Remember that the next time you’re looking for somewhere to park that extra $100,000 you’ve got in your pocket.
Dee also iNews Cayman story “Bruce Rauner changes tune on secret Cayman Islands accounts/Quinn’s double standard” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/bruce-rauner-changes-tune-on-secret-cayman-islands-accountsquinns-double-standard/
Staples will keep closing stores, nobody is surprised
By Laura Northrup From Consumerist
Earlier this year, Staples announced plans to close 225 underperforming store due to poor performance. Almost six months later, the office supply retailer hasn’t managed to turn things around, mostly because consumers are looking elsewhere for most of the things they would buy at Staples. Especially electronics. Turning things around will be a difficult task, since the chain plans aggressive discounts to lure customers back in.
One of the most aggressive of those discounts is their price-matching plan, which is Staples’ plan to get some electronics business back from other big-box retailers and Amazon. Notably, the only website they will match is Amazon. For this back-to-school season, Staples is doing a 110% price match: matching prices, then discounting 10%.
Will it work? Maybe. Reuters reports that the company’s overall sales continue to fall, and were down 6% in the second quarter of 2014. Sales of electronics were down even more in the last quarter, and
Aggressive discounts like the 110% price match may get customers in the doors, but will they come back to buy items that can’t be matched to sales elsewhere? Will they at least show up to buy some ink cartridges and resume paper?
Competitors Office Depot and OfficeMax merged last year to better compete against Staples, and they report that revenues are down as well. Will paperless offices and online ordering doom the big-box office supply store chains? We’ll find out in the coming years.
For more: http://consumerist.com/2014/08/22/staples-will-keep-closing-stores-nobody-is-surprised/
CPL committee rubberstamps result of disputed final
From ESPNcricinfo
The CPL’s cricket tournament committee, after reviewing reports from the contending parties, has ruled that the result of the final cannot be ‘reversed or nullified’ © LatinContent/Getty Images
The Caribbean Premier League’s (CPL) cricket tournament committee has ruled that match referee Denavon Hayles properly applied the relevant rules in the rain-hit CPL final on August 16, which Barbados Tridents won by 8 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method. In a release announcing the committee’s finding, the CPL also confirmed that Guyana Amazon Warriors had indeed filed a complaint – as was widely speculated in the media following the match – “with regard to the outcome of the final”.
It is understood that Amazon Warriors had issues with the officials’ application of the rules regarding the time allotted for the match in the face of several rain delays. The committee had decided on the matter after reviewing the match referee’s report and “the arguments raised by the Guyana Amazon Warriors in their several written representations”. It could now be escalated to the ICC, though, if the “contending parties” wanted as much, the CPL release said.
“Having carefully considered the report of the match referee and the arguments raised by the Guyana Amazon Warriors, the [committee] has concluded that there are no grounds for the result of the final to be reversed or nullified,” chairman of the cricket tournament committee, PJ Patterson, said, adding that the image of the tournament should not be muddied. “The CPL has succeeded in reinvigorating the passion for cricket across the region and has in two short years established its own distinctive brand and earned exciting market appeal. Nothing must be done to impair its image or erode its credibility.”
In the rain-marred match, Tridents got to 152 for 6. Amazon Warriors had batted out 15.5 overs in the chase when the rain came down again, and play was eventually ended there.
For more: http://www.espncricinfo.com/caribbean-premier-league-2014/content/story/773863.html
Appeals Court won’t hear Aereo’s “We’re a cable company” argument
By Chris Morran From Consumerist
Following its crushing defeat before the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this summer, streaming video startup Aereo tried to stay alive by arguing that since the court said it was acting like a cable company, it should then be considered a cable company. Alas, a federal appeals court has decided not to hear this debate, possibly hammering the final nail into Aereo’s coffin.
Aereo had originally claimed that its service — which uses arrays of tiny antennae to capture freely available over-the-air broadcast signals and then transmit the live feeds over the Internet to paying users — didn’t violate broadcasters’ copyright because the setup was really just a high-tech rooftop antenna, connecting one user with a single wee antenna.
But a divided SCOTUS disagreed, with the majority ruling that what Aereo was doing was not substantially different from the way in which pay-TV operators collect and retransmit over-the-air network feeds to cable customers. Thing is, those pay-TV companies fork over heft fees for that access while Aereo did not.
And so, when the Aereo case was sent back to the lower court, the company tried to make the argument that it should be allowed to operate if it agrees to pay reasonable retrans fees to the broadcasters.
“If Aereo is a ‘cable system’ as that term is defined in the Copyright Act,” wrote the company’s lawyers in a letter to the court, “it is eligible for a statutory license, and its transmissions may not be enjoined.”
For more: http://consumerist.com/2014/08/22/appeals-court-wont-hear-aereos-were-a-cable-company-argument/
See related iNews Cayman story “Copyright Office deems Aereo not a cable company” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/copyright-office-deems-aereo-not-a-cable-company/
Temple stampede in central India kills at least 10: official
From Business Insider
New Delhi (AFP) – A stampede killed at least 10 people and injured more than 60 in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Monday as pilgrims gathered at a temple, an official said.
“A stampede broke out very early this morning, around 5:30 or so, where five women and five men have died,” police control room official Vinay Kumar Singh told AFP by phone.
“The place is still very chaotic and crowded, but police and ambulances have reached the spot,” Singh said.
Thousands of Hindu devotees were gathering at several temples around a hill in the state’s Chitrakoot area when ropes set up to control the crowds gave way, officials told the Times of India website.
“Some of the pilgrims who were walking fell on the ground… and this triggered a panic,” police inspector general Pawan Srivastava told the website.
Astronauts just found sea life in outer space. Seriously.
By Viola Knowles From Care2
Russian astronauts, or cosmonauts, have discovered living organisms clinging to the exterior of their International Space Station.
The microscopic creatures were discovered during a space walk to clean the surface of the vessel, and they’ve reportedly been identified as a type of sea plankton. But scientists have no idea how they got there.
“Results of the experiment are absolutely unique. This should be studied further,” Russian ISS Orbital Mission Chief Vladimir Solovyev told ITAR-TASS.
Currently, the Russian space agency is unable to explain how sea plankton — you know, from Earth’s oceans — ended up on a vessel in outer space. Their only explanation is that atmospheric currents may be lifting the particles from the ocean all the way to the station — about 205 miles up in the sky.
That seems totally insane.
Scientists initially thought they were contaminants produced by the engines of incoming and outgoing spaceship traffic, but boy, were they wrong.
The theory that organic life may have spread across space by traveling on comets and asteroids will be made more credible if the sea plankton is found to be growing or multiplying.
This post originally appeared on RYOT.
