iNews Briefs
Miss Cayman Islands collects her car
Tonie Chisholm, Miss Cayman Islands 2015, has already taken home her car after winning the title last weekend.
The car, 100% electric Wheego, had the keys handed by John Felder, President and CEO of Cayman Automotive to Miss Chisholm that is leased to her for one year.
Gutierrez, Moreira leave Cuba’s team
Associated Press From ESPN
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Two Cuban baseball players in Puerto Rico for the Caribbean Series apparently have abandoned their team mid-tournament, Cuba’s team said Wednesday.
The missing players were identified as 19-year-old pitcher Vladimir Gutierrez and 29-year-old shortstop Dainer Moreira. Gutierrez had not yet played in the series, while Moreira batted in Cuba’s only run against the Dominican Republic.
Cuba beat Puerto Rico 3-2 in 10 innings Wednesday for its first victory in the Caribbean Series after losing its first two games against the Dominican Republic and Mexico.
The players’ apparent decision to abandon their team to stay on American soil comes amid moves to improve US-Cuba relations, with the MLB on Tuesday eliminating its requirement that Cuban players obtain a license from the U.S. government before they are eligible to sign with big league teams.
“That decision is a betrayal to the revolution, to their family, to their homeland. It’s an exchange of shame for money,” Jorge Polo, vice president of Cuba’s National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation, said in a statement published by Cuba’s state media.
Juan Francisco Puello, commissioner of the Caribbean Confederation of Professional Baseball, said in a statement that the confederation will not get involved.
“This is a private matter,” he said. “They are under no obligation to report anything to us.”
Some Cuban athletes have previously used international competitions as an opportunity to stay behind. Puerto Rico is an American territory, and Cubans who make it to the island generally can apply for legal U.S. residency.
If they stay in Puerto Rico, the players would be subject to baseball’s amateur draft and their rights would be controlled by one major league team. But if they establish residence outside the U.S., Puerto Rico, or Canada, they can be free agents and get more lucrative contract offers.
For more: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12279900/cuban-baseball-players-abandon-team-puerto-rico
Cayman Islands minister to delay No Confidence Motion in Police Commissioner
Bernie Bush, Deputy Opposition Leader and MLA for West Bay, has said he will be delaying filing a motion of no confidence on the Commissioner of Police in the Legislative Assembly because of the planned legal action his party leader, McKeeva Bush, is taking against RCIPS Commissioner David Baines.
Bernie Bush said that he still believes Baines should be removed from office but until either the legal action is concluded or until the Finance Committee meets in May, Bush would not call for a debate in the parliament.
Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs for Caribbean and Canada to be established
By Commonwealth Secretariat
Youth entrepreneurship organisations from thirteen Commonwealth countries across the Caribbean and including Canada have agreed to form a regional alliance of young entrepreneurs. The group will be called the Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs-Caribbean & Canada (CAYE-C&C).
The Alliance will be modelled on the Commonwealth Asia Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs (CAAYE), which was formed in 2011 and brings together young entrepreneurs from Commonwealth countries in Asia. The decision was unanimously reached by twenty organisations at a forum hosted by the Commonwealth Secretariat from 10 to 12 December 2014 in Barbados.
The proposed mission of the Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs-Caribbean & Canada (CAYE-C&C) is to:
- Empower and nurture young people through access to essential resources including entrepreneurship training, financial and technical support, networking and mentorship opportunities;
- Advocate for policies conducive to creating a strong entrepreneurial culture and ecosystem; and
- Gain global recognition as the voice and face of young entrepreneurs in the Caribbean and Canada.
The Alliance will focus on building support for youth entrepreneurship, promoting knowledge-sharing among member organisations and stakeholders, providing information to young entrepreneurs, and facilitating regional trade for young entrepreneurs.
Speaking at the forum, Katherine Ellis, Director of Youth at the Commonwealth Secretariat, welcomed the groundswell of support received for establishing the Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs-Caribbean & Canada.
Ms Ellis said: “This Alliance will be an invaluable network for young entrepreneurs in the Caribbean and Canada, and help to build trading opportunities and represent their interests across the 53 nations of the Commonwealth and beyond. At the Commonwealth Secretariat, we are committed to the cause of youth enterprise, and we will continue to support and connect young entrepreneurs so that their voices are heard by decision makers at the highest levels.”
Cayman Islands to launch Cancer Registry
The Cayman Islands Government has announced it will be launching a 30-day public consultation phase for its Cancer Registry Bill on Tuesday 10th February.
This will give Government officials the opportunity to clearly explain the proposed legislation and its benefits, as well as to identify local concerns.
The government says his Law will mandate the reporting of cancers and brain tumours by medical providers, which in turn will help ensure that the policymakers and people of the Cayman Islands have access to timely and accurate information relating to cancer, including those relating to risk.
The sharing economy: Will self-regulation by startups suffice to protect consumers?
By Alex Howard From TechRepublic
“Congress should care, but forbear.” That was the conclusion of a panel of an academic, a researcher, a consumer advocate, and a tech executive convened by the Internet Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives in DC last week to consider regulation and the “sharing economy.” I was proud to moderate the discussion. It’s a timely topic: startups that develop platforms that match the supply of goods and services with demand from mobile consumers are attaining multi-billion dollar valuations and shaking up markets for lodging, transportation, and more.
Three of the participants, Arun Sundararajan, a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, Adam Thierer, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and David Hantman, the head of global public policy for Airbnb, all made a case for why legislators and regulators need to take great care in enacting laws and policies that govern companies and startups, lest entrepreneurs be stifled and genuine benefits to consumers be snuffed.
That came as no great surprise: Sundararajan has previously written that government shouldn’t regulate the sharing economy, in 2012, and, more recently, about trusting the sharing economy to regulate itself. Thierer just co-authored a paper on the sharing economy and consumer protection regulation (PDF) in which he and his co-authors argue that, “coupled with the Internet and various new informational resources, the rapid growth of the sharing economy alleviates the need for much traditional top-down regulation.”
These recent innovations are likely doing a much better job of serving consumer needs by offering new innovations, more choices, more service differentiation, better prices, and higher-quality services. In particular, the sharing economy and the various feedback mechanism it relies upon helps solve the tradition economic problem of “asymmetrical information,” which is often cited as a rationale for regulation. We conclude, therefore, that “the key contribution of the sharing economy is that it has overcome market imperfections without recourse to traditional forms of regulation. Continued application of these outmoded regulatory regimes is likely to harm consumers.”
John Breyault, vice president of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud at the National Consumers League, made arguments for consumer protection within the services using existing statutes and posited that the technological innovation that various startups are deploying benefit consumers. Hantman, for his part, recounted the steps that Airbnb now takes to protect both hosts and users of its services in the event of disputes and issues.
Tingyi Cayman Islands : executive director Wei Ying Chiao quits
Tingyi said Wei Ying Chiao has tendered his resignation as an executive director with effect from today as he wished to have more time to devote to his other work commitments.
Wei Hong-Ming has been appointed an executive director of the Company with effect from the same day. He is the son of Wei Ing-Chou, the Chairman of the Group. Wei joined the Group as project manager of the CEO’s office in 2006. (HL)
The Caribbean Union of Teachers promotes LGBT Rights
From Education International
Teacher union leaders have made an important step in their journey to develop a better understanding of LGBT issues from a human rights perspective, as the region shifts its tolerance and acceptance toward sexual diversity.
In an effort to bring an end to the discrimination of LGBT students and teachers in Caribbean schools, teachers’ unions took small steps to find solutions to create acceptance of sexual diversity.
Human rights were at the core of the argument led by one of the Caribbean’s leading politicians and former Foreign Minister of Belize, Lisa Shoman, as she facilitated a discussion on “LGBT rights of students and teachers” at the Caribbean Union of Teachers’ (CUT) 6th Education Conference in Belize City, Central America in December.
Teachers unions take on homophobic response in the education sector
Shoman, who is also a human rights lawyer, had the challenge of helping teachers move beyond what has been a contentious issue throughout the region’s history, which has been greatly influenced by religious and cultural beliefs and values. She worked to highlight human rights to separate them from issue of beliefs. However, one major roadblock in many countries has been the law.
“There are still antiquated laws on the statute books” that see people penalised for their sexual preferences, said Davanand Sinanan, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA), and Education International (EI) Executive Board Member. “In fact, in Trinidad and Tobago we have not been able to finalize a national gender policy for over three years because of opposition from religious bodies to clauses that speak to LGBT rights.”
Sinanan made it clear that wants his schools and society to change perspective, to recognise that all people deserve equal rights in order to stop discrimination.
Following the discussion, many agreed that there is a need for extensive education on the issue within the region to ensure that teachers are able to face varied lifestyle choices professionally and without judgement, especially youth friendly educational services that are delivered with the full respect of their rights and dignity for all, and the diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Currently, 11 of the 12 Commonwealth countries of the Caribbean criminalise homosexuality under laws introduced by British colonialism. Many of these laws are reported to be indirectly enforced through police extortion and other state-sanctioned abuses, social stigma and direct discrimination. Criminal enforcement emerges as a barrier, which amounts to the denial of access and rights to education, employment, housing, health and other public services.
For more: http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/news_details/3414#
Officials focus on SUV driver in deadly NY train crash
From CBS
VALHALLA, N.Y. – The baffling behavior of a woman whose Mercedes SUV stopped between the crossing gates on a railroad track came under scrutiny Wednesday as investigators sought clues to a fiery commuter train crash that killed six people in Valhalla, about 20 miles north of New York City.
National Transportation Safety Board officials were looking at the Metro-North train’s black-box-style recorders, seeking to learn its speed, whether brakes were applied and whether it sounded its horn as it approached the suburban New York crossing where it slammed into the SUV during Tuesday’s rush hour, NTSB vice chairman Robert Sumwalt said.
At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Sumwalt said it was unclear why the SUV being driven by Ellen Brody, 49, had stopped in the crossing just before it was hit by the train, killing her and five others who were passengers on the train.
Investigators also planned to look at the track signals’ recording devices, interview the train’s operators, peer into the wreckage with laser-scanning devices and seek aerial footage, he said. Sumwalt said he has no indication currently that the crossing’s safety gates were not working properly.
“The big question everybody wants to know is why was this vehicle in the crossing,” Sumwalt said. “Throughout the next several days our investigators will continue to document the scene.”
“We intend to find out not only what happened, but we want to find out why it happened,” he said earlier Tuesday at the site of the collision.
Meanwhile, officials were using dental records to identify the badly burned victims – five men on the train and the SUV driver, officials said. Several others remained hospitalized, at least two with critical or serious injuries.
Tuesday’s crash was the deadliest accident in the 22-year history of one of the nation’s busiest commuter railroads – one that has come under a harsh spotlight over a series of accidents in recent years.
“It’s really inexplicable, based on the facts we have now,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on WCBS-AM radio.
The wreck happened in an area where the tracks are straight but car traffic can be tricky, as drivers exiting or entering a parkway turn and cross the tracks near a wooded area and a cemetery.
The driver had gotten out of her Mercedes SUV momentarily after the crossing’s safety gates came down around her and hit her car, according to the driver behind her, Rick Hope.
“I said to myself, ‘The clock is ticking here, the gate is down, the bells are ringing – what are you going to do here?'” he told WNYW-TV. “She looked a little confused, gets back in the car and pulls forward” on the tracks.
Traffic was moving slowly, choked with drivers seeking to avoid the Taconic Parkway because of an accident, he noted.
“It looks like she stopped where she stopped because she didn’t want to go on the tracks,” Hope added. “It was dark, so maybe she didn’t know she was in front of the gate.”
Dead Prosecutor had drafted warrant for Argentine President’s arrest
By Daniella Silva and Laura Saravia From NBC News
An Argentine special prosecutor who was found dead of a gunshot wound in his home had drafted a warrant seeking the arrest of the country’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, according to documents obtained by local media.
Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor whose death last month sent shockwaves through Argentina, drafted a 26-page document, first published in Argentine Spanish-language newspaper Clarin, calling for the detention of Fernandez and her foreign minister, Hector Zimmerman.
The document was found in a trash bin at the Nisman’s apartment, where he was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head by police on Jan. 18.
Nisman was the lead investigator into the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and injured hundreds more. In the last few months, Nisman had been outspoken in his criticism of Kirchner and other government officials, accusing them of having shielded Iranian officials from responsibility in the attack. Nisman was set to testify in a hearing about the bombing before his death.
In this Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015 photo, a woman holds up a sign that reads in Spanish “Justice” as she gathers with others outside the funeral home where a private wake for the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman takes place, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Nisman was scheduled to appear before Congress the day after he was found dead in his apartment on Jan. 18, to detail his allegations that President Cristina Fernandez had conspired to protect some of the Iranian suspects in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center. The man who gave Nisman the gun that killed him said Wednesday that Nisman feared for the safety of his daughters and didn’t trust the policemen protecting him.
Viviana Fein, the lead investigator into Nisman’s death, initially denied the existence of a draft when Clarin first reported on them on Sunday. But on Tuesday Fein walked back her comments, saying on Argentine radio that it was a misinterpretation.
“The word I should have used is: It is clear that there was a draft,” she said on Argentine radio station Vorterix.
In a statement released by Fein’s office, she said different types of documentation were found in Nisman’s home, including in a trash bin, and that the material was protected as evidence and all part of the investigation. She added that further testing of evidence will take place next Monday. Fein did not acknowledge whether there was a warrant for the president’s arrest.
The killing is still under investigation: Some have said Nisman’s death was a suicide — he was found with a gun next to him and his home was locked from the inside — while others, including the Argentine president herself, have questioned that claim.
In a post on her Facebook page, Fernandez suggested the death and ensuing political drama was part of an ongoing struggle with Argentina’s intelligence community.
“They used him while he was alive and then they needed him dead,” she said in the post, adding that his death was “sad and terrible”.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Missing man once involved in failed plot to overthrow Caribbean nation
Rob Gowan From Qmi Agency
OWEN SOUND, Ontario – A man who is missing after a farmhouse fire near Annan, Ontario, was involved in a failed mercenary plot to takeover the Caribbean island of Dominica in the early 1980s.
Lyyli Polli confirmed Monday that her son, Urmas Aarni Polli, 59, was involved with a group of U.S. and Canadian mercenaries who tried to overthrow the government of the island in 1981.
The plan failed when the FBI was tipped off and the ship hired to transport the men never left the dock in New Orleans.
Polli and Denise Deborah Kelly, 51, were “unaccounted for” after a house was discovered destroyed by fire on Friday evening, the OPP said.
The Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office confirmed Monday one body had been found and the search continued for a second. By mid-afternoon, police had not confirmed the identity of the victim.
Lyyli Polli said Monday from her Owen Sound home that she was still waiting for more information about her son, who was staying at the Annan-area property with who she believed was his girlfriend.
Polli said her family bought the house where her son was living around 1960 as a weekend and summer property. She moved to her current home in Owen Sound about eight years ago.
“We had this place for a very, very long time and my husband was going there every weekend,” said Polli.
“We lived in Toronto for years.”
She confirmed her son was the same man who had been involved in the failed Dominica takeover about 35 years ago.
Code-named Operation Red Dog, the plan to overthrow the government of Dominica was planned by a group of Canadian and American mercenaries who were largely affiliated with white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan groups in both Toronto and the southern United States.
The group was led by an American Mike Perdue, along with German-Canadian neo-Nazi Wolfgang Droege and a Barbadian weapons smuggler. Perdue’s plan was to assist former prime minister Patrick John and his backers in regaining control of the island in exchange for control over its future development.
U.S. officials learned of the plan, infiltrated the group and arrested those involved at the dock in New Orleans where they had planned to board a ship for Dominica.
“He was right-wing totally,” said Lyyli Polli. “He was a very good person and he never came home drunk or anything. He was only totally mixed up in this right-wing business.”
For more: http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2015/02/20150202-195923.html
Spray-and-sleep idea has Indiegogo backers eager to rise
By Nancy Owano From Medical Xpress
(Medical Xpress)—We know that adequate sleep is one of the most important paths to good health. We also know that any indiscriminate use of pills to help us sleep is one of the biggest health risks we can take. A group from Palo Alto believes they have a better path. Spray a melatonin recipe on your neck and sleep happens. Their solution is called Sprayable Sleep, a spray bottle that the person can use by just misting on the neck a couple of times at a go, about an hour before the user hopes to fall asleep.
Sprayable Sleep comes from a company called Sprayable. Its two cofounders are Ben Yu, who studied biochemistry at Harvard, and Deven Soni, with a background as VC investor. Chongxi Yu, PhD, serves as chief scientific advisor; his field is bioorganic chemistry. Yoshi Luk is the company’s design lead. Palo Alto-based Sprayable is based at Stanford, incubated at Stanford’s StartX Startup Incubator. What’s in the spray? Water, tyrosine, a derivative of a natural amino acid, and melatonin, the natural hormone that regulates your circadian rhythm. Each bottle has 30 uses of the colorless, unscented spray.
If melatonin already occurs in our bodies, why need any assistance? Ben Yu said that if you did want to leverage melatonin naturally, you would best get up at sunrise and go to bed at sunset and avoid all artificial light. This, however, would be a fool’s waking dream for millions inundated by electronics as part of their surroundings. Because of all the unnatural light in our environment, he added (as from televisions, smartphones, and lightbulbs) our bodies produce melatonin later in the evenings and there may not be enough built-in melatonin in a person’s system to support sleep when needed.
They have been developing, testing, patenting and perfecting Sprayable Sleep for over two years and now have turned to crowdfunding on Indiegogo to bring the spray forward. Interestingly, the group’s funding goal was $15,000 but at the time of this writing $162,291 was raised, and with 28 days still to go. Said Yu to backers: “We’re just amazed at the support from all of you, and wanted to take this moment to celebrate and thank all of you.”
A $15 pledge gets a silver-colored bottle with 60 sprays – 30 uses—with delivery in the US targeted for July and internationally in August. On the site’s FAQ page, the question is posted about whether it is safe for use for pregnant women. “At the present time,” they answered, “there is isn’t enough data to conclusively establish the safety of melatonin for pregnant women. As such we don’t recommend Sprayable Sleep by anyone who is pregnant.” Asked a similar question regarding children, they answered, “Like above, there just isn’t enough research to conclusively establish the safety of melatonin in children, either. As such, we don’t recommend the use of Sprayable Sleep by anyone under the age of 18.”
More information: sprayable.co/products/sprayable-sleep
www.indiegogo.com/projects/spr… u-spray-on-your-skin
For more on this story and video go to: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-02-spray-and-sleep-idea-indiegogo-backers-eager.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ctgr-item&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
