iNews Briefs, More & Community Events
Cayman Islands Community Events
TUE JUNE 2
Child month Board Games Evening
Child Month organisers invite families to enjoy the rescheduled Board Games evening on Tuesday 2 June, at Book Nook, in the Galleria Plaza on West Bay Road, 6.00- 8.00pm.
Prospect Community Group Meeting
The Prospect Community Group will be having a public meeting on Tuesday (2 Jun) at the Seafarers Hall off Victory Avenue at 7:00pm.
Moonlight and Movies Summer Series
The Moonlight and Movies Summer Series is Tuesday (2 Jun) at 7pm in Gardenia Court. The feature film will be Jurassic Park.
Toddler Tuesdays
Starting in June, Camana Bay introduces Toddler Tuesdays, with Story Time and Imagination Playground moving from Wednesdays to Tuesdays. Camana Bay Story Time will now begin at 11am at Regal Cinemas and Imagination Playground will remain in its current timeslot of 10am-7pm on The Crescent, but both activities will move to Tuesdays.
WED JUNE 3
National Workforce Development Agency in Bodden Town
The National Workforce Development Agency will be at the Bodden Town Library on Wednesday (3 Jun) from 2 — 5pm.
Quiz Night is next Wednesday have you booked your table yet?
CARE – Cayman Animal Rescue Enthusiasts
Why not get a team together and join us for the first Wednesday of every month for Quiz night at PD’s! This Wed June 3 at 7:00pm
If you are unable to make it but would like to help spread the word about our Quiz, please download the PDF flyer to share on your office notice board.
CARE-Cayman Animal Rescue Enthusiasts www.caymancare.ky 938 2273
THU JUNE 5
Estella Scott Roberts Foundation Gala
In support of the Estella Scott Roberts Foundation grant program, the foundation will be hosting its annual fundraising event at the George Town Yacht Club on Friday June 5th 2015 at 8:00pm under the theme ‘Soul Train’. Tickets can be purchased at Papermans in Mid Town plaza or any ESRF member.
Two Cayman Islands police officers accused of excessive force
Two Cayman Islands police officers, Cardiff Robinson (30) and Austin Etienne (44) pleaded not guilty to assault in Summary Court last Wednesday (May 27).
The incident happened in May last year in the arrest of Lawson Scott following a high-speed island long car chase that finished in East End when tasers were used.
The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service helicopter was also used in the chase.
Sean Paul wife says Usain Bolt is neighbor from hell
From Urban Islandz
Usain Bolt is a neighbor from hell, at least so says Sean Paul’s wife Jodi Stewart-Henriques.
Apparently, residence in the upscale Norbrook community in St. Andrew have been complaining about the loud noise from cars, motorcycle and music coming from Usain Bolt’s house.
“Between the bikes … , loud, horrid music, parties and screams, I honestly wish he would go back to where he came from. He’s a horrible neighbour. I cannot wait to move,” a furious Jodi Jinx wrote on Facebook. “So unfair and disrespectful. I’ve honestly lost all respect for him. He takes his nasty behaviour with him everywhere. So many people love him and he’s such a poor example of how to behave. I honestly can’t blame the set of UPT (uptown) that have him as poppy show in parties or on their boat. He’s the ultimate party clown.”
“So convenient that the part about the multiple gunshots on 2 different occasions was left out,” Jinx tweeted on Friday.
Bolt fans have been bashing Jodi Jinx on social media ever since she made the post with some caller her a bully.
Usain Bolt has not responded to the allegations.
IMAGE: Usain Bolt and Sean Paul wife Jodi
For more: http://urbanislandz.com/2015/05/30/sean-paul-wife-says-usain-bolt-is-neighbor-from-hell/
D.C. Circuit dismisses appeal over Guantánamo videos as ‘Premature’
By Zoe Tillman,From Legal Times
A federal appeals court in Washington won’t rule on an order forcing the public disclosure of videos that depict the force-feeding of detainees at the U.S. military facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
But don’t expect to see the videos any time soon. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the case as premature, noting that the lawyers and trial judge still had to hash out which portions of the videos will be redacted before release. The trial judge also had yet to approve a plan for how the videos would be released.
The case is likely to go back to the appeals court once the lower court rules on those issues. In the meantime, the videos will remain sealed.
“Hence, unless and until the district court approves the joint proposal and orders the unsealing and release of the redacted videotapes, the cat will remain comfortably in the bag,” a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit wrote in a joint opinion released on Friday. “This is simply not a case in which the district court has already ordered disclosure of allegedly protected documents.”
Chief Judge Merrick Garland and judges Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins heard arguments in May.
Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a Guantánamo Bay detainee from 2002 until late last year, filed claims in the federal district court in Washington several years ago challenging the procedures that were used to forcibly feed him as he participated in a hunger strike. A coalition of media organizations intervened in his case to advocate for the release of video recordings of those force-feeding sessions.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler in October ordered the videotapes released, subject to redactions to protect the identities of other individuals seen on the tapes. In December, Dhiab was released and sent to Uruguay. The fight over the videos continued as the U.S. Department of Justice appealed Kessler’s order.
Jon Eisenberg of Horvitz & Levy in Oakland, who represents Dhiab, said on Friday that the D.C. Circuit panel “rightly determined that the redactions need to be made before this case is ready for appellate review.”
“I was surprised at the outset that the appellate specialists at the Department of Justice thought these interlocutory orders were appealable and I’m not surprised that the court of appeals properly said they weren’t,” Eisenberg said.
A Justice Department spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment. David Schulz of Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz in New York, who argued for the news organizations, also was not reached Friday morning.
IMAGE: The city’s mayor said it was fortunate the incident had not happened on a busy week day
New York crane’s load falls in Manhattan injuring 10
From BBC
Ten people have been hurt after a piece of mechanical equipment being lifted by a crane broke free and plunged 28 storeys in central Manhattan.
Two of those injured were construction workers while the others were drivers of passing cars and pedestrians.
“Thank God, this incident occurred at an hour of the day on a weekend when there were not too many people around,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The incident occurred just before 14:45 GMT at 261 Madison Avenue.
Police officers attending the scene found that the crane’s payload had broken free as it was heading to the top of the building, shearing the side of the office block and plunging to the street below, the Associated Press news agency reported.
An investigation is under way.
For more and video go to: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32953475
Mauritius’s economy expected to hit 3.6 per cent growth, says Moody’s
From CPI Financial
Mauritius’s small yet diversified economy, good record of attracting investment and its resilience against external shocks underpin its Baa1 (Stable) government bond rating, Moody’s Investors Service said in its latest credit analysis of the country.
The Mauritian authorities’ key challenges are to continue to fosterdomestic and foreign investment, maintaining the country’s financial stability and consolidating the public finances to help meet its government debt reduction commitments.
“While Mauritius has a small and open economy that is susceptible to external shocks, it also has an impressive record of resiliency,” said Lucie Villa, Assistant Vice President and co-author of the report. “The country’s relative wealth and diversification and the authorities proactive policies all support the economy.”
Moody’s believes Mauritius’s economic outlook is healthy and forecasts real growth of 3.6 per cent in both 2015 and 2016, in line with historical averages.
Mauritius stands out in the region for its ease of doing business, its low taxes, and the importance given to the private sector’s views when the government shapes economic policy. Ample liquidity available in the domestic capital market supports the government’s capacity to access local currency denominated funding.
A substantial deterioration of government debt metrics or increased external vulnerabilities would exert downward pressure on the rating.
Conversely, a significant and permanent reduction in Mauritius’s vulnerability to external volatility and shocks would exert positive pressure.
The government is committed to lower its debt to 50 per cent of GDP by 2018. However, the medium-term fiscal path presented in the last budget relies on back-loaded fiscal deficit reduction based on tight current spending control and the pick-up of growth. This underlines the risks of the government potentially missing its targets. General government debt is high compared to peers.
The authorities also faces a challenge in finding ways to protect the public finances from any spillover effects from country’s financial sector, which includes a relatively small banking system. The problems recently uncovered in the Bramer Corporation Limited (unrated) highlight the challenges facing the supervisory authorities.
Moody’s expects monetary policy to remain in-line with the central bank’s objectives of price stability and balanced economic development. Mauritius enjoys a stable political environment with well-established institutions and a tradition of coalition politics.
American arrivals to Cuba shooting up as ties thaw
HAVANA, May 30 (Xinhua) — The number of American tourists to Cuba increased by 36 percent during the first four months this year, though traveling to the island country is still restricted by U.S. laws.
A total of 51,458 Americans visited Cuba from January through April, up 36 percent from the 37,459 registered in the same period of 2014, said Jose Luis Perello, a professor of the Faculty of Tourism at the University of Havana.
Perello pointed out that 38,476 visitors flew directly from the United States to Cuba, compared with the 29,123 during the same period last year.
The other 12,982 Americans, added the professor, came to the island through third countries, marking an increase of 57 percent over the 8,246 Americans who flew to Cuba from elsewhere during the same period of 2014.
These data shed light on the number of Americans who come to Cuba through third countries to avoid the many restrictions imposed by Washington as part of the legal framework of its embargo on the island since 1962.
“Mexico, the Bahamas, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are the first choices for Americans who come to Cuba from locations outside the United States,” Perello said.
Since last December Cuba and the United States have been negotiating the resumption of their diplomatic ties and the eventual normalization of relations.
U.S. President Barack Obama has raised up to 12 categories of traveling permission to the island. Academics, religious workers and journalists, after making an application to the relevant departments, can be given the green light
Several U.S. airlines, such as Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and JetBlue Airways, have expressed their interest in starting to operate commercial flights to the island as soon as legally permitted.
Cuba’s tourism sector received a record of 3 million vacationers last year, and now is getting prepared for the boom of visitors after an eventual normalization of relations with the United States.
According to experts, the island country could receive between 3 and 3.5 million American tourists each year, thus the Ministry of Tourism is working out a strategy to expand its hotel facilities, expecting to have 85,000 rooms of high standard by 2020.
Cuba’s tourism industry generates over 2.5 billion dollars of revenues each year, and is the second source of income for the national economy, after the export of medical services.
SOURCE: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-05/31/c_134284767.htm
GoPro unveils drone, six camera array for VR content
By Lance Ulanoff From Mashable
After spending years riding on the bellies of other people’s drones, GoPro is finally building its own quadrocopter for consumers. “Quads plus GoPro has been one of the most enabling combinations,” said GoPro CEO Nick Woodman, who announced the new product at Re/code’s Code Conference Wednesday.
Woodman said the camera maker decided to build their own drone when they realized the growth of the sector reminded them of the early days of the GoPro business. “I think that it’s core enough to our business that it makes sense for us to make our own,” explained Woodman.
Regular GoPro cameras will, he added, remain compatible with other drones. The drone is set to arrive sometime early next year. No details yet on pricing, but it should appeal to consumers.
Woodman’s other new product is decidedly not for average consumers.
GoPro is building a six-camera spherical array rig that will allow you to create immersive 360-degree photos and video. Woodman actually brought along an early prototype (see above), but said the final product doesn’t arrive until the second half of this year.
“For VR to be appealing to non-gamers, it’s gonna need content, photo and video content,” Woodman said. This GoPro spherical rig could be the source of some of that content. It’s like a poor mans’s Jaunt device, a VR content capture product recently used to record an immersive Paul McCartney concert experience.
To stitch together the six photos or videos, GoPro enlists technology from Color, a French company it acquired earlier this year. The software pulls the images and videos together into one 360-degree environment. There’s also a mobile app that lets you view the content either by moving your finger around the screen or by sitting in a spinning chair and rotating around to see the 360 environment.
Obviously, most people can’t afford six GoPros. Woodman said the spherical rig is mostly for prosumers, pros and brands looking to create immersive VR content.
IMAGES:
GoPro Spherical Array
Dalai Lama urges Suu Kyi to act on Rohingya
AFP From Business Insider
Sydney (AFP) – The Dalai Lama has urged fellow Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do more to help Myanmar’s persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority amid a worsening migration crisis.
Despite thousands of Rohingya fleeing on harrowing boat journeys to Southeast Asia to escape poverty and discriminatory treatment by the country’s Buddhist majority, opposition leader Suu Kyi is yet to comment.
Observers have attributed this to fears about alienating voters ahead of elections slated for November.
The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader said she must speak up, adding that he had already appealed twice to her in person since 2012, when deadly sectarian violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state pitted the Rohingya against local Buddhists, to do more on their behalf.
“It’s very sad. In the Burmese (Myanmar) case I hope Aung San Suu Kyi, as a Nobel laureate, can do something,” he told Thursday’s The Australian newspaper in an interview ahead of a visit to Australia next week.
“I met her two times, first in London and then the Czech Republic. I mentioned about this problem and she told me she found some difficulties, that things were not simple but very complicated.
“But in spite of that I feel she can do something.”
The issue was thrown into the spotlight this month when thousands of Rohingya, together with Bangladeshi migrants, were rescued on Southeast Asian shores after fleeing by boat.
The crisis has shone a spotlight on the dire conditions and discrimination faced by the roughly one million Rohingya in western Myanmar, a group widely seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
The Dalai Lama, perhaps the world’s most famous refugee, added from his exile in the Indian Himalayas that it was not enough to ask how to help the Rohingya.
“This is not sufficient. There’s something wrong with humanity’s way of thinking. Ultimately we are lacking concern for others’ lives, others’ well-being,” he said.
Malaysia has been a favourite destination for the Rohingya. Migrants often travelled to Thailand by boat, then overland to northern Malaysia.
But Thailand began a crackdown on smuggling following the discovery of mass graves there, which appears to have thrown regional human-trafficking routes into chaos.
More than 3,500 migrants have arrived on Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian soil in recent weeks, and hundreds or thousands more are feared still trapped on boats.
Seven camps — some with dozens of graves believed to contain the bodies of Rohingya — have been uncovered in Thailand’s Songkhla province close to the Malaysian border.
IMAGE; Rohingya migrants stand and sit on a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea on May 14, 2015. © AFP Christophe Archambault
For more: http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-dalai-lama-urges-suu-kyi-to-act-on-rohingya-2015-5#ixzz3beh405ng
Interview: Chinese premier’s LatAm visit marks “significant milestone”: UN official
By Leng Tong, Liang Junqian From Xinhua Net
SANTIAGO, May 29 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s recent tour of South America marks “a very significant milestone in China’s ties with Latin America,” a senior UN official has said.
The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Barcena, spoke with Xinhua about the significance of the four-nation tour, which wrapped up Tuesday with Li’s keynote address to regional envoys at ECLAC’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile.
Li’s visit to ECLAC’s office, as well as prior visits by other Chinese leaders, “confirm that China has a strategic outlook toward Latin America and that’s very important,” Barcena said.
During the premier’s visit to Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile, he presided over the signing of a host of accords, and proposed a new mode of production capacity cooperation.
China’s proposal for boosting cooperation came “with no strings attached,” Barcena said, in contrast to the International Monetary Fund and similar international lending agencies, whose cooperation schemes invariably came with “many strings attached,” often demanding the government do A, B or C in return for the funding.
“Now we have China, coming to Latin America as a friend, as a partner, on equal terms, demonstrating its political commitment,” Barcena said, adding that now the region has a clear strategy and clear goals.
One of the most anticipated announcements during Li’s visit, said Barcena, was China’s participation in a proposed transcontinental railway that connects Brazil’s Atlantic coast with Peru’s Pacific coast, to create an export corridor that will facilitate South America’s growing trade with China.
The rail line, currently under feasibility study, would cut import costs for China, by shaving some 30 U.S. dollars off each ton of cargo, while at the same time helping Latin America boost connectivity, productivity, infrastructure and employment.
With notable progress made in trade and cooperation between China and Latin America, one aspect of the bilateral relationship remains to be strengthened, Barcena said.
“One of the main issues we have to achieve soon is for us to know each other better culturally, as people to people,” said Barcena, echoing a similar message expressed by the premier.
Barcena said Li’s speech at the ECLAC was the most important point in the tour, because this is the UN’s home in Latin America and the Caribbean, and what the premier said here was simultaneously heard in the Caribbean, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Peru, because the ECLAC was connected to the entire region.
Barcena noted that the speech was published in Central America, the Caribbean and even in New York, at the United Nation Secretariat, which sent her a “nice message” describing Li’s visit to the organization’s headquarters as “positive.”
For more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-05/30/c_134283499.htm
This woman cross-dressed and hitchhiked her way across the Middle East
By Paula Froelich Editor in Chief Yahoo Travel
As the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and poet Carl Sandburg once said, “Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.” This is how I feel about travel. While I plan the trip, the best part is meeting people along the way — and sometimes, very rarely, running into someone you adore whom you never thought you’d see again.
This was the case with Candace Lau. As you may remember, I went skiing in Afghanistan last year for the Afghan Ski Challenge and met Candace, an Australian woman who had set off to travel around the world for as long and as cheaply as possible. She is fearless, and cheap in the Middle East meant public transportation — so she cross-dressed her way across Pakistan and Afghanistan and parts of Iran. We met during her Afghanistan leg and have been Facebook friends ever since.
If you don’t remember Candace or her story (which was insane), watch this before you go any further; it adds context and will reintroduce my crazy pal:
When I left Candace in Afghanistan, I wasn’t sure if I would ever see her again — not just because she was a Western woman traveling alone as a man in one of the most conservative Islamic countries in the world, but because the fact of travel is: You meet people on the road who change your life, and due to time, distance, finances, and opportunity, most times you have to carry them in your heart, as seeing them in person again is unlikely.
So I was beyond shocked when I ran into Candace — randomly, I might add — in Jordan last month. She’d escaped Afghanistan (just barely — watch the video at the beginning of this piece to hear the story; it’s shocking that she’s still alive) and taken a bus into Iran before heading to Israel, Palestine, and Jordan.
I was traveling through Jordan in a tricked-out tour bus like a Persian Liberace on the loose and had oodles of room, so I invited her onboard for the rest of the week that I was in the country.
IMAGES:
Candace and me, hanging in the Jordan Bar in Amman.
This was my bus. Not kidding. There were four of us riding in it — with Candace, five. I felt like Cher.
For more: https://www.yahoo.com/travel/this-woman-cross-dressed-and-hitchhiked-her-way-119459610202.html
Reading Buses ‘cow poo bus’ sets speed record
From BBC
The bus was described as “quite a sight”
A bus powered by cow manure has set a land speed record for a regular bus by driving at 77mph.
Reading Buses’ “Bus Hound” was recorded doing a lap speed of 76.785mph (123.57km/h) at Bedford’s Millbrook Proving Ground.
It runs on biomethane compressed natural gas and is painted black and white like a Friesian cow. It normally carries passengers around Reading.
The UK Timing Association confirmed the new record.
Reading gas-powered bus attempts record
The vehicle runs on biomethane compressed natural gas
Trevor Duckworth, the association’s chief timekeeper, said it was “quite a sight”.
The bus is normally speed-limited to 56mph (90km/h).
Martijn Gilbert, chief executive of Reading Buses, said it would not be recognised as a Guinness World Record unless it reached speeds above 150mph (241km/h).
‘Vulcan bomber’
Chief engineer John Bickerton said the company wanted the “world’s first service bus speed record” to bring to light the viability, power and credibility of buses fuelled by cow poo.
“We’ve laid down a challenge for other bus operators to best our record and we had to make it a bit hard for them.
“Most importantly we wanted to get the image of bus transport away from being dirty, smelly, and slow. We’re modern, fast, and at the cutting edge of innovation.
“It was an impressive sight as it swept by on the track. It sounded like a Vulcan bomber – the aerodynamics aren’t designed for going 80mph.”
Its fuel is made from animal waste which is broken down in a process called anaerobic digestion to produce biogas, which is then liquefied, Mr Gilbert said.
It is stored in seven tanks fixed inside the roof of the bus.
The vehicle’s name was inspired by the British Bloodhound super-sonic car which aims to go beyond 1,000mph in 2016.
‘Fast bus’ driver
Unofficially the driver of the ‘Bus Hound’ took the vehicle over the 80mph mark
‘Cow poo’ bus
The bus is painted black and white like a Friesian cow
For more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-32801974
Initiative Urges Voluntary Term Limits for Future Justices
By Tony Mauro, From Legal Times,
Future nominees asked to pledge to single 18-year term.
A new effort to limit the tenure of future U.S. Supreme Court justices launched Wednesday, with the aim of urging any would-be nominee to pledge to serve a single 18-year term.
The initiative, called Come to Terms, asserts that term limits are needed to increase accountability and reduce the politicization of the court, especially in the confirmation process.
“The current system of lifetime appointments and sporadic retirements is broken and a far cry from its original intent,” said Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, a group formed last year to promote transparency and accountability on the high court. The term-limit effort is a project of Fix the Court.
Lifetime appointments, Roth said in a statement, “were supposed to shield Supreme Court justices from the influence of partisan politics.” He pointed to the historic rise in 5-4 decisions under Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. Roth said: “No one needs more than 18 years in the high stakes and extremely powerful position of Supreme Court justice.”
Proposals to limit terms for justices have circulated in recent years in light of the fact that life tenure, as called for in the U.S. Constitution, lasts much longer than at the time of the framers. The new group noted that the average tenure of a Supreme Court justice has increased from 14.9 years before 1970 to 26.1 years now.
Shortening justices’ terms is also seen by some as a way to increase diversity, depoliticize the high-stakes nomination process, and insure that turnover is not dictated only by justices’ deaths or decisions to retire. There were no high court vacancies, for example, during President Jimmy Carter’s four years in office from 1977 to 1981.
Critics of limits have said Supreme Court appointments were meant to be lifetime jobs, not just stepping stones in a lawyer’s career that would make justices be on the lookout for future employment.
To limit justices’ tenures, suggestions have been made for constitutional amendments or legislation that would place justices in a senior status after a fixed number of years. Those measures would be difficult to pass. The new effort asks the next nominee to pledge to an 18-year term.
“We can and must expect better from the Supreme Court,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Irvine, School of Law, a supporter of the new campaign. “Lifetime appointments lead to too much power exercised by a single person for too long a period of time. Clarence Thomas was 43 years old when he was confirmed for the Supreme Court in 1991. If he remains on the Court until he is 90, the age at which Justice [John Paul] Stevens retired, he will sit on the Supreme Court for 47 years.”
IMAGE: United States Supreme Court justices. Top row (left to right): Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, and Elena Kagan. Bottom row (left to right): Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Photo: Steve Petteway/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via Wikipedia
