iNews Briefs
Cayman Inquest record open verdict for woman falling from building
Cayman Islands Coroner’s Court, after hearing evidence relating to the death of Shakara Lisa Bonny Taylor (31), returned an open verdict.
Taylor fell to her death from the 7th floor of a building at the Caribbean Club on May 29th, 2013.
She was not living there.
The jury was informed Taylor had died from multiple blunt trauma injuries to the head, chest and abdomen.
No illegal drugs or alcohol and there were no injury marks on her neck suggestive of an assault, and no defensive injuries on her forearms or fingers were found.
There were a number of theories as to the cause of the victim’s death suggested including suicide, bipolar, mental illness and syncope (a disorder of loss of consciousness and premature heartbeats) but nothing that was conclusive.
The jurors had deliberated for approx. an hour and a half before returning their open verdict that means “the exact cause of someone’s death is not known” – Longman.
See also iNews story today “Beauty queen fell to her death from the roof of a five-star Caribbean hotel after her fiancé suddenly postponed their wedding”
Baby born without eyes despite sonogram showing no abnormalities
From Fox News Latino
The first few days after Richie was born, nothing clouded Kelly Lopez’s joy. She wasn’t too worried about the fact that the newborn had not opened his eyes.
But then an MRI taken he was almost two weeks old came back with shocking news – those tiny eye sockets were empty. Richie was born with no eyeballs.
Lopez says she had a normal and uneventful pregnancy and cannot understand how the problem was not detected before he was born.
“I think we were just in shock,” Lopez, of Mesa, Arizona told the online news website Newser. “[It was] obviously very upsetting. The first thought through your mind is, how did this even happen and how was it not even caught?”
Richie’s birth defect is called Anophthalmia, which results in the total absence of ocular tissue or globe – it is an extremely rare disease, mostly rooted in genetic abnormalities.
The only ray of hope for the Lopez’s is that Richie does have an optic nerve and may potentially be able to see one day, with the help of science.
For now, he wears a pair of baby sunglasses.
“I do hope that one day that they’ll be able to either grow an eye or transplant an eye,” Lopez added.
Richie, who is now three months old, is already enrolled in developmental programs designed for blind babies and plays with specially designed toys.
For more: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/1dbhv7cp5g28w/?&th=14b51ebde68de1d8&v=c
French Open men’s Doubles Champion coming to Cayman Islands Legends
1993 French Open Men’s Doubles Champion, Murphy Jensen has confirmed he will be attending the Cayman Islands 12th Legends Tennis event that runs 13-14 February at the Festival Green at Camana Bay.
He will be holding clinics for local players and says that’s the most rewarding part of these exhibitions.
Other participants include Anna Kournikova, Andy Roddick, Lindsay Davenport, Jim Courier and billionaire Sir Richard Branson.
Beauty pageant in Brazil ends in cat fight, finalist snatches crown from winner and throws a fit
From Fox News Latino
IMAGES:
Sheislane Hayalla accused Carol Toledo of having “bought” the crown. (CAROL TOLEDO/FACEBOOK)
Sheislane Hayalla (SHEISLANE HAYALLA/FACEBOOK)
A beauty contest to pick the next Miss Amazonas in Brazil turned ugly suddenly when Sheislane Hayalla refused to be 
second best.
In the coronation ceremony, on Friday night, runner-up Hayalla hugged winner Carol Toledo when she was first announced as queen, but a few seconds after the crown was gracefully placed on her rival’s head, Hayalla snatched it, threw it to the stage floor and left in a rage.
She accused Toledo of having bought the title.
Pictures and videos of the incident spread quickly on social media over the weekend. Users created all kinds of memes mocking the unexpected grand finale.
The winner of Miss Amazonas represents the state in the national Miss Brazil contest. It was not immediately known if Hayalla would retain its position as “first princess.” Event organizers did not comment.
“I wanted to express my disapproval of the actions in the preparations for Miss Amazonas 2015.” I do not regret having protested,” she said on her Facebook page on Saturday night.” I wanted something clean and honest.”
Hayalla has participated in other beauty contests. In 2013 she represented Brazil in Miss Globe International, held in September in Baku, Azerbaijan, where she was first princess and seemed to accept the title gladly.
“I apologize if someone does not like my attitude, but I did what my heart told me to do,” Hayalla said in a video released after the contest.
Based on and translated from The Associated Press.
Cayman Islands evangelist dies
Cayman Islands evangelist Gloria Wilks died last Sunday (1) at age of 68 after a long illness.
She was well known to Cayman audiences through her CITN/Cayman27 television show “Gospel Insight”.
She preached in various countries in the Caribbean (Turks and Caicos, Bahamas, Bermuda), United States, United Kingdom and Canada. She was also a founding member of the Cayman Brac New Testament Church of God.
SOURCE: http://www.cayman27.com.ky/2015/02/03/remembering-evangelist-gloria-wilks
Dominica adopts Caribbean Court as court of final appeal
From Fox News Latino
The government of Dominica announced Tuesday that the Caribbean Court of Justice, or CCJ, will become the country’s court of final appeal starting this month.
“Certainly, as we indicated last year, this is an historic opportunity for Dominica. It would mean allowing more ordinary citizens to have greater access to the judiciary system,” Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said in a statement.
Dominica is one of 12 Caribbean Community member-states that use the CCJ as a court of Original Jurisdiction for interpretation and application of the treaty establishing CARICOM.
Skerrit said Dominica will now become the fourth CARICOM member – – alongside Barbados, Guyana and Belize – to accept the Original and Appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ.
Twelve of the 15 Caribbean Community member-states are signatories of the CCJ: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St.
Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
All 12 use the CCJ as a court of Original Jurisdiction for interpretation and application of the treaty establishing CARICOM, but several do not employ the CCJ as the court of final appeal in civil and criminal cases.
The Bahamas, Haiti and Montserrat are not signatories of the CCJ. EFE
Camana Bay to expand with $300M project
“Since we commenced construction in 2005, we invested over a $1 billion in Camana Bay Town Centre. The next step of our development is to connect the Town Centre to Seven Mile Beach, sea to sound connectivity, and that will bring a beautiful 5 star hotel and another $300 million investment to Camana Bay,” said Dart Realty COO Jackie Doak on local television CITN/Cayman 27’s news Tuesday (3) evening.
Dart Realty unveiled plans showing broad landscaped bridges and elevating land that will connect the town centre to the 7Mile Beach.
The new hotel will be set back from the Beach and will span both sides of the West Bay Road and motorists will use an underpass to travel underneath it.
Camana Bay will expand to the west and pedestrians will walk from the Seven Mile Beach to the Camana Bay town centre along an avenue that bridges both highways, over a large ground-level parking lot.
The current stretch of the Esterley Tibbetts highway that passes in front of the town centre will become an internal road within Camana Bay.
Doak said work on the hotel will likely begin in 2017after the road restructuring is complete and the underpasses have been built.
Companies allowed to reveal National Security letters
By Andrew Ramonas, From Corporate Counsel
In a loosening of rules surrounding national security letters, the FBI generally will let companies reveal warrantless requests they receive for customer data the agency seeks as part of national security cases, President Barack Obama’s administration announced Tuesday.
Under the national security letter program, the FBI can bypass a judge to get subscriber information, telephone records and other customer details from businesses. Until now, companies typically couldn’t publicly disclose information about the national security letters they received—even the fact that they’d received one.
Businesses, however, must wait at least three years to divulge the requests under the updated national security letter policies. The agency will “presumptively terminate national security letter nondisclosure orders at the earlier of three years after the opening of a fully predicated investigation or the investigation’s close,” unless an FBI manager decides disclosure is inappropriate, according to a report the Obama administration released on surveillance reform.
“Our signals intelligence activities must take into account that all persons have legitimate privacy interests in the handling of their personal information,” Lisa Monaco, Obama’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, said in a statement. “At the same time, we must ensure that our intelligence community has the resources and authorities necessary for the United States to advance its national security and foreign policy interests, and to protect its citizens and the citizens of its allies and partners from harm.”
The announcement of the national security letter program tweak came a year after Obama directed U.S. intelligence agencies to make surveillance reforms following leaks from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
In addition to the national security letter policy change, the administration announced Tuesday that the government won’t hold on to data it collects from U.S. citizens as part of its surveillance activities, so long as the information doesn’t provide any foreign intelligence. The administration also said it’s pushing for legislation that would end bulk data retention under the government’s telephone records collection program. The USA Patriot Act’s Section 215, which is set to expire June 1, authorizes the gathering of the phone information.
Annual Cayman Economic Outlook conference starts Thu (5)
Fidelity Cayman Economic Outlook (CEO) begins at 9am tomorrow!
CEO 2015, featuring high-profile international speakers, develops the tradition set over more than a decade by its predecessor Cayman Business Outlook.
http://fidelityceo.com/
See also iNews Cayman story published Jan 5 2015 “FIDELITY: Positive Outlook – CEO2015 Conference” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/fidelity-positive-outlook-ceo2015-conference/
Caribbean Airlines registers significant losses in 2014
From Jamaica Observer
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – The Trinidad-owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL) has recorded losses estimated at US$60 million last year, Finance Minister Larry Howai has said.
Howai, speaking in the Senate on Tuesday, said that the accounts for fiscal year ending December 31, 2014 were still being compiled but that the losses took into account the US$38 million grant provided by the government during 2014 which was recorded as equity.
But Howai told legislators that the unaudited accounts showed a loss of US$60 million and that the airline had developed a strategy plan which envisaged it breaking even by 2017.
Howai said the transformation of CAL would take three to four years following a consistent company strategy to achieve identified objectives with major milestones targeted during this period. He said this strategy plan was recently developed and completed towards the end of last year.
Howai dismissed reports that there had been an injection of more than one billion dollars (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) into the airline last year.
Last July, CAL announced that it was projecting a loss of just under TT$100million for its financial year 2013.
Howai said then that the airline has been enduring a difficult period but may now be emerging from it.
According to its financial statements for 2012, the airline, which a few years ago merged its operations with the cash-strapped Air Jamaica, registered losses that moved from US$43.6 million in 2011 to US$83.7 million in 2012.
For more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Caribbean-Airlines-registers-significant-losses
Katy Perry’s dancing sharks were the real Super Bowl winners
By Lindsey Weber
Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
If there’s just one thing thing to take from last night’s Super Bowl XLIX, it’s Katy Perry’s two dancing sharks. It doesn’t matter who won — hell, it doesn’t even matter who played — during Katy Perry’s Halftime Super Bowl Show, she danced alongside two insane-looking sharks, and the world went wild.
(They’re even singing! Kind of!) It’s true, everyone mostly fell in love with Left Shark, who seemed to be taking his shark choreography off-book. This guy’s a free spirit.
For more and videos go to: http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/katy-perrys-dancing-sharks-won-the-super-bowl.html
Harper Lee wrote a To Kill a Mockingbird sequel, and it’s coming in July
By Nate Jones From Vulture
Fifty-five years after her first novel, Harper Lee is finally releasing a follow-up: Lee’s publisher announced today that it would be releasing a new book by the reclusive author, coming July 14. The book, which was completed in the 1950s, was Lee’s attempt at telling the story of the adult Scout Finch; her editor, she said, preferred the flashbacks to Scout’s youth, and convinced her to put it on hold to write the book that would become To Kill a Mockingbird. “I hadn’t realized [the first book] had survived,” Lee said in a statement, “so [I] was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it. After much thought and hesitation, I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication.” Its title is Go Set a Watchmen, which appears to have narrowly beat out our suggestion, 2 Kill 2 Mockingbirds.
Murdoch’s Fox, News Corp. won’t be charged over hacking
From Moneymax
Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. and News Corp. said the U.S. Justice Department won’t prosecute either company after an investigation into voice-mail hacking and payments to public officials in the U.K.
The companies announced the decision in separate regulatory filings on Monday.
“We are grateful that this matter has been concluded and acknowledge the fairness and professionalism of the Department of Justice throughout this investigation,” Gerson Zweifach, general counsel of both News Corp., Murdoch’s publishing arm, and of 21st Century Fox, the film and TV business, said in an e- mailed statement from both companies.
Fox and News Corp., operated separately since billionaire Murdoch split his media empire, were embroiled in a scandal over hacked voice-mail accounts by journalists at the now closed News of the World newspaper.
Reporters gained access to the voice-mail of Milly Dowler, a missing schoolgirl who had been murdered.
The hacking scandal led Murdoch to close the weekly News of the World tabloid, and both he and his son, James, were called to testify before a Parliamentary committee in the U.K.
News Corp., which at the time owned both the publishing and entertainment businesses, dropped a 7.8 billion pound ($13.2 billion) bid for full control of British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. James Murdoch, who led the U.K. newspaper unit of News Corp., dropped his role as chairman of BSkyB.
Magnitude 5.0 earthquake rattles Trinidad, Venezuela
From Caribbean360
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Wednesday February 4, 2015, CMC – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 rattled Trinidad early on Tuesday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damages.
The Seismic Unit of the University of the West Indies (UWI) said that the quake, which occurred at 6.59 am, was located at a depth of 10 kilometers, 126 kilometers west of Port of Spain.
Residents in the weatern Diego Martin area called radio stations here to report feeling the tremor.
The Seismic Unit said that the quake was also felt Carupano and Maturin in Venezuela.
For more: http://www.caribbean360.com/news/magnitude-5-0-earthquake-rattles-trinidad-venezuela#ixzz3QnOtLxuC
Rep. Peter King to Newsmax: Pilot’s Torching by ISIS Is ‘Savagery’
By Todd Beamon From newsmax
As Jordanians demanded revenge Tuesday against the Islamic State (ISIS) for the torching of a pilot the jihadists captured in December, Rep. Peter King told Newsmax that the brutal murder proved the group to be nothing more than “absolute animals.”
“They’re disgusting. This is the worst type of atrocity imaginable,” said the New York Republican, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. “We thought the beheadings were as far as one could go. To go beyond that, to burning someone alive, this is savagery.
“It shows what animals we are up against,” King added. “These are not people you can negotiate with. These are not people who in any way you can reason with.
“You have to destroy them. You have to kill them.”
Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra cautioned that ISIS has been killing thousands of people throughout the Mideast.
“This is not an isolated case,” he told Newsmax. “This is the case that is grabbing the headlines, but on a daily basis, these folks are killing people all over the Middle East. This is a barbaric organization.
“The high-visibility cases help define who they are, but the West has to recognize that this is going on every single day in areas that are controlled by ISIS,” Hoekstra added. “It’s just that the vast numbers of executions they are carrying out just aren’t receiving the same kind of visibility that these have.
“In many cases, they are just locals or Iraqis,” he said. “But this is who they are.”
For more: http://www.Newsmax.com/Newsfront/Peter-King-ISIS-savages-torch/2015/02/03/id/622533/#ixzz3QnR8VSKB
