iNews Briefs
Reporting app revealed
The Department of Environment (DoE) has announced it is launching an app that will enable people to make reports to staff in real time on their iPads and smart phones whenever they see someone executing infractions in the Cayman Islands marine parks.
The new technological development is related to further research being funded by the UK’s Darwin Initiative.
The app will also allow users to report any interesting sightings, from turtles nesting to whales or dolphins, and also give a GPS map of the marine parks to boaters and other water users.
Man jailed after 4th driving conviction
Kenrick Meagal Marshall received a six months jail sentence when it was revealed this was the fourth time he had been found driving whilst disqualified.
He also faces disqualification from driving until 2020.
When Marshall told Magistrate Valdis Foldats he had learnt his lesson she replied:
“You told me that two years ago.”
Burglary suspects due in court
Two of the three men arrested last week following a burglary and police pursuit have been charged in connection with the incident and are due to appear in court.
The men, aged 19 and 20 years, have been charged with burglary.
The third man, aged 18 years, remains in police custody at this time, but is due to appear in court later today in connection with an unrelated matter.
Following another report of burglary received in the early hours of Friday, 24 January, at a residence in Palm Road, George Town, a 28 year-old man has been charged with attempted burglary, theft and carrying a restricted weapon at night.
Original story: 21 January 2014 16:37
Subject: News Release – Burglary, police pursuit, car crash – three arrested
Burglary, police pursuit, car crash – three arrested
Three men have been arrested and are currently detained in police custody after a series of events, which began with a burglary in the Red Bay area.
About 2.40pm today police received a report of a burglary in progress at a house in Selkirk Drive, Red Bay. The occupant of the house had disturbed the suspects who then fled from the scene in a red Honda Civic. Officers, who had been en route to the scene, followed the Honda and used sirens and blue lights in an effort to stop it. However, the Civic failed to stop and drove into George Town where it subsequently crashed in the area of East Boulevard and Walkers Road. Three male suspects bailed out of the car and ran off towards the Windsor park area.
A search of the area involving uniform staff, USG, DSCTF, CID and the Air Operations Unit led to the arrest of two men a short time later. The third suspect has since been arrested in central George Town. All three were arrested on suspicion of burglary.
No-one was injured in the crash. The Civic, which has now been reported as having been stolen from West Bay earlier today, sustained front end damage in the crash. No other vehicles were damaged in the incident.
Police enquiries are ongoing any anyone who was in the area of Selkirk Drive around the relevant time today and saw anything suspicious, or anyone who saw the red Civic before or after the burglary, should contact George Town CID on 949-4222, the RCIPS tip-line 949-7777 or Crime Stoppers 800-8477(TIPS).
All of the aforementioned suspects are due to appear in court today, Tuesday 28 January, 2014.
Men deny killing man whose body was found in trunk
Chad Anglin and Leonard Ebanks from West Bay have both pleaded “Not Guilty” to the murder charge of killing Frederic Bise (40).
Bise’s beaten body was found in the trunk of a burnt out car outside his home in Mount Pleasant, West Bay, in February 2008.
Bise was a Swiss Banker.
88-year-old man walks into wife’s hospital room in Nevada and shoots her
By Ed Payne and Joe Sutton, CNN
(CNN) — An 88-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after shooting his wife in the chest at a Nevada hospital, authorities said.
William Dresser was being held on $225,000 bail and has been put on suicide watch.
He allegedly walked into his wife’s hospital room in the rehabilitation ward at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center on Sunday and opened fire, according to the Carson City Sheriff’s Office.
The shooting occurred Sunday with a recently-purchased small caliber semi-automatic handgun, the sheriff’s office said. The woman’s name, age and the motive of the shooting were not immediately available.
Her injuries are considered life-threatening and she has been transferred to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno.
Dresser does not have a criminal past, according to Sheriff Ken Furlong.
She was hospitalized because of a previous injury. Authorities did not consider her injury suspicious.
For more: http://us.cnn.com/2014/01/20/justice/nevada-hospital-shooting/?iref=obnetwork
Foreign airlines suspend local currency ticket sales in Venezuela
By Caribbean News Now contributor
CARACAS, Venezuela — On Friday three more international airlines joined the list of foreign carriers that have suspended local currency ticket sales in Venezuela, saying that the government owes them billions of dollars in unpaid fares.
US carriers American Airlines and United Airlines, along with Panama’s Copa Airlines, said they were halting ticket sales in Venezuela as a result of the government’s failure to pay arrears that as of last month totaled $2.6 billion, according to a statement issued on December 12 by the International Air Transport Association, an airline trade group.
Under Venezuela’s complicated foreign exchange rules, the government acts as intermediary in foreign currency sales of goods and services, including air fares.
Airlines that have already suspended operations include Air Canada, Tame (Ecuador) and TAP (Portugal).
As of Friday, no flights in or out of Venezuela had been cancelled by foreign carriers, but the airlines had halted ticket transactions in bolivars. Sales of tickets purchased with dollars are still reportedly being made.
Venezuela finds itself in a tightening shortage of foreign currency partly because of falling oil revenues. An increasing percentage of oil output now goes directly to China to repay cash advances that now exceed $42 billion. Free or discounted oil that Venezuela ships to Cuba and several other Caribbean nations under the PetroCaribe agreement generates less than market rate.
Last month, airlines in the Dutch Antilles were reported to be facing acute financial problems over the Venezuelan payments default.
Tiara Air Aruba was in an especially difficult position. Curacao based InselAir is still surviving, though its partner KLM was also waiting on $70 million from Caracas.
Biologists probing deaths of 25 whales off Florida’s coast
From The Daily Herald
MIAMI–Biologists on Friday examined the carcasses of 25 dead pilot whales found off the coast of southwest Florida, collecting samples from the animals to try to determine the cause of a recent spike in whale deaths.
Wildlife officials completed necropsies on six whales among the group of 16 females and 9 males a day after they were spotted by boaters near Kice Island, Florida, said Kim Amendola, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The whales were part of a pod originally seen swimming in shallow waters near the city of Naples on Sunday, prompting a team of wildlife officials concerned about a spate of stranded whales, to mark the animals to better identify them. Earlier this week, eight other whales were found dead after they swam into shallow waters near Fort Myers, Florida.
The group of 25 whales were found to be thin and showed no signs of having interacted with humans, Amendola said.
Biologists have said the whales’ close-knit social structure may be playing a role in the deaths. Pilot whales are a social, deep-water species. They live in pods of 20 to 90 whales and typically will not leave ailing or dead members behind.
The bonds are so strong that dead whales have to be cleared from beaches before others swimming in shallow waters can be guided out to sea.
Under 23 Fixtures Wednesday 29 January 2014
The Cayman Islands Football Association have announced “as the *President’s Cup fixtures will take place this week Wednesday 29 January, ALL Under 23 games this week will be postponed. We will inform clubs when these fixtures will take place at a later date.
*To clarify it is the Premier League matches that will be the reason of the postponement of the U23 games, NOT the President’s Cup. All Premier League matches this week are to go ahead on Wednesday/Thursday this week.
Latin American, Caribbean leaders open Cuba summit with minute of silence for Chavez
From Fox News
HAVANA – Latin American and Caribbean leaders are opening a regional summit in Cuba with a one-minute silence to remember the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Chavez succumbed to cancer in March. He was a driving force behind the creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, conceived as an alternative to the Organization of American States.
Cuban President Raul Castro gave the keynote address Tuesday as head of the host nation.
Castro said CELAC, as the bloc is known, is “the legitimate representative of the interests of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Cuba is passing the presidency pro-tempore of CELAC to Costa Rica at the summit.
Birds attack peace doves freed from Pope Francis’ window
From Fox News
VATICAN CITY – Two white doves that were released by children standing alongside Pope Francis as a peace gesture have been attacked by other birds.
As tens of thousands of people watched in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, a seagull and a large black crow swept down on the doves right after they were set free from an open window of the Apostolic Palace.
One dove lost some feathers as it broke free from the gull. But the crow pecked repeatedly at the other dove.
It was not clear what happened to the doves as they flew off.
While speaking at the window beforehand, Francis had appealed for peace in Ukraine, where anti-government protesters have died.
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