iNews Briefs
Cayman Islands serves up ice cream in NYC
From Travel Weekly
The timing could not be better. With temperatures soaring into the high 80s this week, turning New York into a true melting pot, the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism took to the streets, dispensing free ice cream.
Trucks adorned with scenes of white sand, blue waters and the iconic sea turtle appeared at various locations in Manhattan, from Herald Square to Grand Central, Times Square to Washington Square Park, and Union Square to South Street Seaport.
The trucks’ locations could be followed on an interactive map.
The trucks also were promoting a contest to win a free trip to the Cayman Islands.
Anyone could enter the contest by sharing their #CaymankindNYC ice cream experience Facebook or Twitter.
For more: http://www.travelweekly.com/blog.aspx?id=260287&blogid=422054
Courteney Cox enjoys 50th birthday on Caribbean Island
From My Rock River Radio
(NEW YORK) — Courteney Cox celebrated her 50th birthday on Sunday by relaxing on a beach in the Caribbean, E! News reports.
Insiders tell E! News the former Friends star and boyfriend Johnny McDaid arrived Saturday night on Turks and Caicos Islands after flying in from Miami. The couple is staying in a villa on the beach.
According to an eyewitness, the couple marked Courteney’s birthday by spending “all afternoon on the beach.”
“It was just the two of them and they found a secluded spot in a cove…It was very romantic and a beautiful setting for the afternoon,” the spy observed. “They shared a green cocktail and took a nap side by side. Courteney looked like there was nowhere else in the world she would rather be and just so happy to be doing what she was doing.”
Cayman’s veteran runner limbers up and ready for Spain
Cayman’s veteran long distance runner, Derek Haines, limbered up at the recent civil servants 5k challenge getting ready for his next marathon at Pamplona, Spain on June 28th.
It is understood Haines will be running with his daughter and he is hoping after his completion, with the money pledged, he will pass the $500,000 mark in his bid to raise $1M for Cayman Hospice.
If you want to help go to: http://six4hospice.com/
Venezuela pledges continued working relationship with Caribbean
From Jamaica Gleaner
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Venezuela has reiterated its commitment to the Caribbean’s socio-economic development as it extended congratulations to the newly elected prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne.
Browne’s Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ALP) won the June 12 general election by a 14-3 margin, defeating the then ruling United Progressive Party (UPP) of Baldwin Spencer.
In his congratulatory message, President Nicolas Maduro said his administration “reiterates its commitment with the Caribbean and expresses its will to continue working together with Antigua and Barbuda for the well being of our peoples and in favor of the rights of the workers in the framework of the Cooperation Agreements of PETROCARIBE, the integration in the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), as well as, in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)”.
Maduro said that in this new political era, “we make vows to strengthen more the historical links of friendship and cooperation between our two sister nations.
“On wishing you all the success in the continuation of your endeavour, which will bring new challenges, we reiterate the disposition of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to work in favour of the development, the peace, the cooperation and the defence of an international order just and multipolar,” Maduro said.
For more: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/extra/article.php?id=3760
Cayman activist NBF case to go to preliminary inquiry
Cayman Islands Chief Magistrate Nova Hall has set a date of Oct. 9th for a preliminary inquiry re the government’s case against Newlands resident and Cayman activist Sandra Catron who is charged with 9 counts of uttering a false document.
Catron has been the subject of a police investigation into her receiving more than $55,000 from the Bush/UDP government National Building Fund (NBF).
The Chief Magistrate set a date of October 9th for the preliminary inquiry to ascertain whether there is enough evidence to go forward with a trial.
Health Care Sector Stocks Coverage — Research on WuXi PharmaTech Cayman
On Tuesday, June 17, 2014, the NASDAQ Composite ended at 4,337.23, up 0.37%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day 0.16% higher at 16,808.49, and the S&P 500 closed at 1,941.99, up 0.22%. During the session five out of ten sectors ended in positive. The S&P 500 Health Care Sector Index ended the day at 688.85, down 0.07%, while the index has advanced 2.52% in the last one month. Investor-Edge has initiated coverage on WuXi PharmaTech Cayman Inc. WX +3.62% Free technical research on WX can be downloaded upon signing up at: http://www.investor-edge.com/3916-register On Tuesday.
Shares in WuXi PharmaTech Cayman Inc. fluctuated between $30.65 and $31.95 before ending Tuesday’s session down 0.87%, at $30.69. The company’s stock reported a trading volume of 0.72 million shares, below its three months average volume of 0.54 million shares. Further, shares of WuXi PharmaTech Cayman Inc. have declined 6.38% over the last one month and 18.42% over the past three months. Also, the stock has lost 20.04% on YTD basis. The stock is trading below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. The stock’s 50-day moving average of $34.34 is greater than its 200-day moving average of $33.34. Moreover, shares of the company traded at a PE ratio of 22.08 and have an RSI of 34.06. Sign up today to read free research on WX at: http://www.investor-edge.com/3916-WX-18Jun2014.pdf
To read the whole release go to: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/health-care-sector-stocks-coverage-research-on-radnet-ims-health-holdings-wuxi-pharmatech-cayman-and-ventrus-biosciences-2014-06-18
YouTube confirms music service, will block holdout labels’ videos within ‘days’
By Jon Fingas From engadget
The cat’s (partly) out of the bag. After a string of rumors, YouTube has confirmed to the Financial Times that it’s launching a paid music service this summer. It’s not saying exactly how the service will work, but Reuters sources claim that it will work largely as leaks suggested back in November. While free videos will still hang around, a subscription will let you listen to songs ad-free, including whole albums. You should also get offline playback for those moments when streaming isn’t an option.
If you were expecting the company to budge on its negotiations with indie labels over royalty rates, though, you’ll be disappointed. YouTube’s Robert Kyncl doesn’t believe that getting licensing deals with everyone is an “achievable goal,” and warns that the video host will start blocking clips from holdouts within a “matter of days” so that all content (free or paid) falls under the same terms. He also rejects arguments that YouTube is strong-arming labels into deals they can’t afford. The provider is paying artists “fairly and consistently,” he says. In a statement to Reuters, YouTube even portrays itself as magnanimous — it contends that the paid service gives music partners “new revenue streams” on top of whatever they’re making.
It’s not a net positive to the music producers, however. A label exec speaking to the Times is worried that the terms let YouTube improve its free service enough that customers won’t bother paying for any service, whether it’s YouTube or a rival like Spotify. Kyncl disagrees, insisting that YouTube is doing its best to create “features that fans love” and offer an incentive to pay. Whatever the motivations, the impasse isn’t good news for viewers that may soon be denied videos from Adele, The XX and many other top-tier musicians.
For more: http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/17/youtube-confirms-music-service/?ncid=rss_truncated
Cayman Ironwood developer involved in 5 court proceedings involving loans
The Cayman Compass is reporting that Cayman Islands developer of the multimillion proposed Ironwood development that has the backing of the Cayman government, is facing five court proceedings filed against him in the United States for failure to pay back loans.
The article says the developer, David Moffitt, “has insisted that all five U.S. cases are connected to a single project – a 300-acre industrial development park that failed to get off the ground following the world financial crisis.”
The article quotes a spokesperson for Moffitt as saying that the project “was the only blemish on a strong track record established over two decades and would not impact Mr. Moffitt’s ability to deliver the golf resort project or the associated $40-million highway extension Ironwood plans to complete in a public-private partnership with government.”
To read the whole Cayman Compass article go to: http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2014/06/18/Ironwood-developer-in-loan-disputes/
Canada government approves oil pipeline to Pacific Coast, but obstacles remain
From Mashable
TORONTO — (AP) Canada’s government on Tuesday approved a controversial oil pipeline to the Pacific Coast that would allow oil to be shipped to Asia, which would be a major step in the country’s efforts to diversify oil exports.
Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project, along with the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, is critical to Canada, which needs infrastructure to export its growing oil sands production. The northern Alberta region has the world’s third-largest oil reserves, with 170 billion barrels of proven reserves.
The approval was expected but whether the Northern Gateway pipeline ever gets built remains in question as there is fierce aboriginal and environmental opposition in British Columbia. Court challenges are expected.
Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called Canada an emerging energy superpower. He has been a staunch supporter of the pipeline after the U.S. delayed a decision on TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Enbridge’s pipeline would transport 525,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta’s oil sands to the Pacific to deliver oil to Asia, mainly energy-hungry China. About 220 large oil tankers a year would visit the Pacific coast town of Kitimat and opponents fear pipeline leaks and a potential tanker spill on the pristine Pacific coast.
Harper has said Canada’s national interest makes the pipelines essential.
Former Cayman company investment adviser pleads guilty to money laundering
Joshua VanDyk, a former investment adviser with Cayman Islands-based Clover Asset Management has pleaded guilty to charges of laundering the proceeds of crime.
VanDyke was arrested in Miami, USA, in March with the Managing Director of Clover, Eric St-Cyr, and a Canadian attorney Patrick Poulin, who is a partner in the Turks and Caicos Islands-based law firm Bishop’s Legal.
Both St-Cyr and Poulin have pleaded “Not Guilty” to the charges.
It is alleged the defendants met with undercover US agents who had asked their help to launder $2M from a bank fraud scheme.
VanDyke is due for sentencing on September 5th.
St-Cyr and Poulin are due to stand trial on July 21st in the District Court for Eastern Virginia.
Apple settles $840 million ebooks price-fixing claim
By Sam Byford From The Verge
Payment depends on outcome of appeal
Apple has agreed to settle out of court with consumers and US states that brought a damages claim against the company for conspiring to raise the price of ebooks. The terms of the settlement have not been made public. Attorney Steve Berman, who represented the plaintiffs, had argued that Apple should be forced to pay $840 million, or triple the amount he estimated the company gained from jacked-up ebook prices. The trial was set to go to court next month.
The lawsuit stemmed from the 2013 ruling against Apple in which US District Judge Denise Cote found Cupertino guilty of colluding with publishers to keep prices higher than the discounted Kindle ebooks Amazon wanted to offer. Apple will continue to appeal against this decision, and Berman notes in a letter to Cote that the eventual settlement payment will depend on the outcome of the appeal. In February, the company lost a bid to remove an antitrust compliance monitor tasked with keeping its ebook activities within the law.
For more: http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/16/5816576/apple-settles-in-ebook-antitrust-lawsuit
Cayman police officer and wife make court appearance
Cayman Islands RCIPS sergeant, Shawn Bodden, now suspended from duty appeared in Summary Court last Tuesday (17) along with his wife Ruth, both charged with obstructing, preventing, perverting or defeating the course of justice.
The case was adjourned until June 24th because their attorney, Charles Clifford, said he had received no paperwork from the Crown.
Several feared dead after explosion at World Cup viewing center in Nigeria
From Business Insider – AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
An explosion ripped through a football viewing centre in Damaturu, northern Nigeria, on Tuesday, police and residents said, as fans gathered to watch the World Cup.
The blast at the Crossfire venue, in the Nayi-Nawa area of the state capital of Yobe, happened shortly after tournament hosts Brazil kicked off against Mexico at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT).
There were no immediate reports of deaths but hospitals were reporting casualties being brought in, medical sources said.
Sanusi Ruf’ai, police commissioner for Yobe state, told AFP: “There was an explosion outside a soccer viewing centre here in Damaturu at around 8:15 pm.
“Our men have deployed to the scene but it’s too early for us to give details.”
One resident said the area had been cordoned off as police and soldiers were sent to the scene.
The blast comes after at least two states banned viewing centres on security grounds following previous attacks blamed on Boko Haram militants, whose five-year insurgency in northern Nigeria has claimed thousands of lives.
Yobe is one of three northeastern states that has been under a state of emergency since last May.
The authorities in Adamawa, in northeast Nigeria, last week closed viewing centres, where large crowds gather to watch matches on the big screen, while the central state of Plateau followed suit days later.
How do you accidentally build a $2m oceanfront home on public park land?
By Mary Beth Quirk From Consumerist
Spoiler alert: If your home is built on land you don’t own, you’re going to have to move it or lose it. The owner of a $2 million home in Rhode Island found out the hard way that not all engineers are up to snuff when it comes to figuring out what is and isn’t public park land.
Back in 2009, the oceanfront home’s developer hired an engineering firm to survey the land slated for the $1.8 million house, which currently sits on a plot in Point Judith, RI. Everything apparently passed muster, and the building went up, with construction complete in 2011.
Fast forward to when the developer then tried to sell the house, reports Turnto10.com, and a prospective buyer hired an independent engineer to check things out.
That survey found that the land was actually owned by a family that designated the area as park land for public use. Oops.
The developer has been fighting to keep the house where it is and reportedly contacted a trustee for the park to see what could be done (to no avail), but now the Rhode Island Supreme Court has found that because the home was built completely on land owned by the family foundation, it has to go, reports the Associated Press at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/court-18m-house-built-park-removed-24171657
Embargo on Cayman’s liquor licence to be lifted
The Cayman Minister whose portfolio covers liquor licensing, Wayne Panton, told the Finance Committee last Friday (13) that he will be recommending the lifting of the embargo on liquor licences.
At present some of the owners of the licences without bars sell or lease their licence out at very high rates to other related business owners.
Since the embargo there has been an increase in illegal liquor sales in Cayman.
Caribbean Development Bank working with Grenada to bring down debt-to-GDP ratio
By Aleem Khan from breaking News T&T
The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is working with Grenada to bring down that country’s debt-to-GDP ratio, Dr Warren Smith, CDB president told a UK-Caribbean Business Conference in London Tuesday (June 17, 2014).
“In St Kitts and Nevis, CDB, working with that government and the IMF, provided a guarantee to facilitate a debt swap with creditors. The debt-to-GDP ratio dropped from nearly 180% to the current level of 100%. Further debt relief was provided when CDB exchanged some of its higher priced loans with ‘softer’ financing. Economic growth has now returned; and the fiscal accounts are much healthier. The IMF, the World Bank and CDB are now working with Grenada to introduce similar reforms to those in St. Kitts and Nevis to achieve comparable results,” he said.
According to the IMF’s latest (2013) estimate, Grenada’s debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 115%.
For more: http://news.co.tt/public_html/article.php?story=201406181142057
Flowers sea swim meet received 960 sign ups
The 22nd Annual Flowers Sea Swim this past Queen’s Birthday weekend saw over 960 swimmers sign up – the event record!
The event drew elite swimmers, including Olympians, from around the world and hundreds of people watched the swimmers battle the course from the Ritz-Carlton to Royal Palms.
For most of the accomplished swimmers the battle was easy as the ocean was calm.
Mateusz Sawrymowicz won the race in 18 minutes, 9 seconds and was followed by Keri-Anne Payne and Jake Zakale.
Haiti prisoners attack police officer and escape
From Caribbean360
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Tuesday June 17, 2014, CMC – Law enforcement officials were searching for seven prisoners who escaped from a police station in Petit Goave injuring a police officer in the process.
The authorities said that one of the prisoners had thrown a liquid in the face of the officer as he opened the cell door to attend to one other inmate who had requested help.
The officer was wounded as the prisoners sought to take his firearm during their escape on Saturday night.
The authorities have named the seven escapees, noting that three others who came to his assistance had refused to flee the prison.
Police Commissioner of Petit-Goâve, Pierre-Louis Jean Alexa, said a file on the incident will be sent to the General Inspectorate of the National Police of Haiti (IGPNH).
For more: http://www.caribbean360.com/news/haiti-prisoners-attack-police-officer-and-escape
HBO debuts new original drama series “The Leftovers”
Created by Damon Lindelof, the series premieres on June 29th in the Caribbean,
simultaneously with the United States
Miami, FL –HBO Latin America announced the premiere of the new original drama series The Leftovers on Sunday, June 29th in the Caribbean, simultaneously with the United States. Set in the fictional small town of Mapleton, residents try to navigate their lives three years after the fateful October 14th global event dubbed “The Departure,” when 140 million people – 2% of the world’s population – disappeared without a trace.
Based on Tom Perrotta’s bestselling novel of the same name, the series shows how preconceptions are shattered when ordinary people react to inexplicable events that can unite or divide families and communities, revealing how the strain of an unprecedented calamity can turn people’s faith into cynicism, paranoia, madness or cult-like fanaticism.
The Leftovers stars Justin Theroux (HBO’s John Adams and Six Feet Under) as Kevin Garvey, a father of two and the chief of police, whose duties are undermined by real and imagined demons. Other series regulars include Amy Brenneman as Laurie Garvey, part of a white-clad, chain-smoking, vow-of-silence group called “The Guilty Remnant” (GR); Margaret Qualley as Kevin’s daughter Jill, lost in a cloud of apathy with her friend Aimee (Emily Meade); Chris Zylka as Kevin’s son Tom, who joined a fringe group led by a charismatic healer named Wayne (Paterson Joseph); Michael Gaston as Dean, a stranger who guns down wild dogs; Liv Tyler as Meg, who has serious doubts about her impending wedding; Scott Glenn as Senior, Kevin’s out-of-touch father; Charlie and Max Carver as Scott and Adam Frost, twins who forge a friendship with Jill and Aimee; Annie Q. as Christine, a follower of Wayne on whom Tom has a crush; Ann Dowd as Patti, a GR leader; Amanda Warren as Mayor Lucy Warburton; Carrie Coon as Nora Durst, who lost her entire family in the Departure; and Christopher Eccleston as Rev. Matt Jamison, committed to proving that the Departed weren’t angels.
Created by Damon Lindelof (Emmy® award winner for Lost) and Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers is executive produced by Lindelof, Perrotta, Peter Berg and Sarah Aubrey; co-executive produced by Ron Yerxa, Albert Berger and Lesli Linka Glatter; and line produced by Nan Bernstein Freed.
