ESTABLISHED 1965 www.caymancompass.com – 50 CENTS – Thursday May 21, 2015 SportS | page 16 fab five boasT ironMan sTaTus Grueling Texas triathlon conquered High of 89 Low of 78 Smooth to slight with wave heights of 1 to 2 feet. editorial | page 4 We’re no. 1! seven Mile beach besT in World Premier Health BritCay has one word to describe policy holders. People. People, not policy holders BritCay prioritises the needs of patients with efficient access to benefits. That’s why we settled 209,003 health insurance claims in 2014, 96% in 5 working days. BRITISH CAYMANIAN INSURANCE AGENCIES LTD. BritCay House, 236 Eastern Avenue, George Town, P.O. Box 74, KY1-1102 Tel. 949-8699 www.britcay.ky A member of Colonial Group International: insurance, health, pensions, life Call 949-8699 www.britcay.ky OppOsitiOn party tO petitiOn against vOting change brenT fuller bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com The opposition Cayman Islands Democratic Party has started a petition drive urging voters to tell the Progressives-led government they don’t support a change in the territory’s election system. Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush said Wednesday in the budget debate in the Legislative Assembly that he would continue to fight against a plan he believed was “not good for these islands.” He said he would an- nounce further details of the petition during a public meeting in Prospect Wednesday night. Premier Alden McLaughlin has said his gov- ernment intends to split the Cayman Islands into 18 voting districts, 16 on Grand Cayman and two on the Sister Islands, in time for the May 2017 general election. Now, Cayman voters cast ballots in six districts, with voters in the larger districts electing more represen- tatives to the Legislative Assembly. Mr. McLaughlin has previously said the current voting system is “blatantly unfair” and that he supports a move to “one man, one vote” via single-member constituent districts. Mr. Bush challenged those statements Wednesday, stating his belief that Premier McLaughlin has never truly wished to change the territory’s voting system. “I cannot support dividing this country up any more,” Mr. Bush said. “That cannot be the kind of participatory democracy we want and the premier knows that.” “You know that you really don’t support this change,” Mr. Bush continued, speaking Secondhand market sells Cayman domain names JaMes WhiTTaker jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com Around 4,000 people and businesses have paid to reg- ister Cayman domain names since regulators announced new rules which will ultimately see .ky Internet addresses sold worldwide. The Information and Communications Technology Authority says around 40 per- cent of the 10,000 local busi- nesses and Internet sites that had .ky addresses have reg- istered and paid their annual US$40 subscription fee under the new regime. Meanwhile, a secondhand market in trading Cayman website addresses appears to be emerging, with domain names being offered for sale or lease locally. Some businesses, which held multiple domain names, are advertising those names for sale or lease locally prior to the .ky handle being open to global investors. Anyone holding a .ky domain name has until Sept. 2 to confirm they want to keep the site name and to pay the registration fee. After that, people all over the world will be able to buy and sell .ky domain names. ICTA has partnered with Cayman Islands-based Internet investor Frank Schilling, who owns global domain registry oper- ator Uniregistry, to manage the domain and market the addresses for sale. ICTA believes there will be demand from companies based overseas that are affiliated with Cayman for the domain – previ- ously unavailable to anyone who does not live in the jurisdiction. ICTA also believes it can le- verage the .ky handle to create marketable website addresses that can be sold at premium Mr. Fa’amoe Government personnel costs to increase by $20 million brenT fuller bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com The Cayman Islands civil service expects its personnel costs will increase by $20 mil- lion in the 2015/16 budget, which takes ef- fect on July 1. The spending plan forecasts the per- sonnel costs, which include salaries, pen- sion and healthcare payments for central government workers, to total $252.4 million, compared to $232.3 million budgeted for the current fiscal year which ends June 30. Nearly half of the 9 percent one-year in- crease is a planned across-the-board pay increase for civil servants that will take ef- fect on July 1. It is expected to add $7.5 mil- lion to the government’s upcoming budget. The 4 percent cost of living pay raise will effectively be the first pay increase the civil service has received since 2008. A 3.2 percent cost of living adjustment was made in 2008, but was then rescinded, given back again in 2010 and rescinded again. In addition to the pay increase for all civil servants, some will have their annual pay “regarded” – meaning increased either through promotion or job category change. That’s expected to cost another $500,000. The 2015/16 budget plan also seeks to increase government employment in spe- cific areas “to increase service quality.” A Personnel costs for central government workers and other civil servants are likely to reach $252.4 million in the next fiscal year. - phOtO: chris cOUrt PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 7 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 »2 LOCAL&REGIONAL Thursday May 21, 2015 • Cayman Compass www. REGmovies.com SATURDAY NIGHT: For your viewing pleasure, minors under the age of 18 will not be admitted to any lm starting after 6pm, unless accompanied by their parent. © Warner Bros. Pictures y x *Additional charges will apply per 3D ticket requested. - THURSDAY - $8.00 MAD MAX: FURY ROAD 3D (R) 1:00 I 4:00 2D I 7:00 I 10:00 2D AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON 3D (PG13) 12:30 I 3:35 2D I 6:40 I 9:45 2D PITCH PERFECT 2 (PG13) 1:10 I 4:10 I 7:15 I 9:50 FURIOUS 7 (PG13) 12:45 I 3:45 I 6:45 I 9:45 HOT PURSUIT (PG13) 12:40 I 2:50 I 5:00 I 7:30 I 10:05 www.tonymosleylifeinsurance.com Firearm from murder scene not operable, expert says Attorneys for Jose Sanchez make submission of no case to answer CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com The firearm recovered from the yard where Solomon Webster was fatally shot was not in operable condition when an expert examined it, Justice Charles Quin heard last week. Jose Sanchez is accused of possessing that firearm and murdering Mr. Webster on Sept. 7, 2014, in a yard off Miss Daisy Lane in West Bay. On Tuesday, defense counsel Mark Heywood began a submission of no case for Sanchez to answer. The first stage of his argu- ment had to do with the firearm – whether it had fired the bullet that penetrated an artery in Mr. Webster’s thigh and whether there was evi- dence that Sanchez ever had possession of it. Firearms expert Allen Greenspan told the court Friday that he had received a Colt Combat Commander semiautomatic pistol on Oct. 3, along with a live round and a spent cartridge recov- ered from the crime scene. He said the live round was the right caliber to fit the gun; the cartridge had been fired from that gun, but he could not say when. He said the gun was not operable when he received it and he had to field strip it to see why. He pointed out that the manual safety device was missing and, without that, the gun would not work at all. Describing the gun as in “extremely poor condition,” he also noted that the recoil guide that sits on top of the gun had been cut or in some way made smaller than it should be. The recoil spring was bent and distorted. The leaf spring was either cut or broken. The pistol grips were not attached to the gun when he received it. Justice Quin has already heard that the gun was picked up at the scene about 10 minutes after the shooting. The man who picked it up hid it in bush at the rear of the property until he could talk privately to a lead in- vestigator. That did not occur until Tuesday, Sept. 9. Mr. Greenspan answered questions about various ways in which the gun could have become inoperable after the single shot was fired that killed Mr. Webster. The other part of Mr. Heywood’s submission was the assertion that there was no evidence Sanchez car- ried a firearm to the yard that evening. His brother had picked him up in the morning to take him to a birthday cel- ebration aboard a party boat. Sanchez was seen leaving his mother’s residence in the yard at Miss Daisy Lane with nothing in his hands. After the birthday party, his brother carried him to the home of Rachelyn Bush, with whom Sanchez had wanted to spend the evening. She had said no and took him back to Miss Daisy Lane. Mr. Heywood said it was farfetched to think that Sanchez could have had a gun with him all day on a party boat with 25 other people with no one seeing anything un- toward, and then there was no opportunity to get a gun from anywhere. Further, Sanchez had no interest in going to Miss Daisy Lane; when Ms. Bush drove him there, he didn’t want to get out of her car. He was removed from the car when Shaquille Bush came up and started a con- frontation that got physical. At that stage, Ms. Bush had seen Sanchez with his shirt over his arm, a phone in one hand and a bottle of rum in the other hand. The two men grappled in the driveway and then moved around the side of one of the houses in the yard. After that, Mr. Webster became involved in the struggle, Mr. Heywood pointed out. Various witnesses saw the three men struggle, but no one saw the shot fired. Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryll Richards responded on Wednesday to these sub- missions, saying there was a case for Sanchez to an- swer. She said the sole issue was whether Sanchez had the firearm and whether it was capable of discharging a bullet at the time he had it. She said there was both circumstantial and direct evidence that the firearm was functional at the time of the shooting. It was in poor condition and had been “cobbled to- gether,” but that gun man- aged to fire one shot and that was a conclusion a rea- sonable jury properly in- structed could reach, Ms. Richards said. Justice Quin, who is sit- ting as judge and jury as Sanchez elected, indicated he would give his ruling Thursday morning. Pasco’s nudist resorts draw global tourism dollars LAND O’ LAKES, Fla. (AP) – It was a relatively slow Tuesday morning at the opulent, clothing-optional Caliente Resort and Spa off U.S. 41. Beneath 20-foot-high ceil- ings inside the resort’s large clubhouse, workers were pre- paring to lay new carpet in the piano bar – where vis- itors were greeted by a sun-splashed view of an 8,500-square-foot artificial la- goon and man-made waterfall surrounded by palm trees and one young woman who was sunbathing naked. “We’re redoing all of the carpeting, artwork and fur- nishings,” said Steve Dorsey, the resort’s general manager and chief operating officer. “We’ll redo the restaurant next, then the nightclub.” The work is being done in advance of the resort’s bus- iest time of year, when people from around the globe travel to Land O’ Lakes – one of the world’s most popular hubs for nudists and naturists. Memorial Day tradition- ally “kicks off our season,” Dorsey said. The work at Caliente was being conducted a week after Pasco County of- ficials issued a news release saying the county is on pace to rake in more tourism dol- lars than it has since 2008, when the economic recession was at its worst. Ed Caum, Pasco’s tourism manager, said in the release that tourism supports 12,000 full-time jobs in Pasco, in- cluding hotel employees and restaurant and retail workers. Local sales tax revenue from about 500,000 visitors to Pasco totaled nearly $15 mil- lion in 2013, according to sta- tistics compiled by the U.S. Travel Association and pro- vided by the county. “Tourists in Florida pay about 23.4 percent of all of our taxes,” Caum said. “They pay 7 percent to Pasco County. Even when people just drive through and get gas, there’s gas tax [collected]. A lot of people don’t see the hidden value of tourists.” Nor, Caum said, do many people seem to understand the positive effects that Pasco’s clothing-optional or nudist tourists have on the local economy. “We truly are internation- ally known as a nudist des- tination,” Caum said. “On our [county] website, there is substantial traffic viewing our clothing-optional page to find out” what’s available in Pasco. “We know there continues to be global interest. I do spe- cifically advertise in Germany and some print media that reaches out to people who would like to have the clothing- optional experience here.” The county also has helped sponsor clothing-optional events, such as Caliente’s an- nual Bare Dare 5K race. “When [nudist resorts] come to us with requests for event sponsorship, we treat it like any other” tourism-related request, Caum said. In central Pasco alone, nudists have an array of op- tions, from Caliente, which opened in 2002, to the 72- acre Paradise Lakes Resort and the rustic Lake Como Resort, a central Pasco fixture since 1941. RobbeRy suspect aRRested at aiRpoRt Police officer spots suspect on flight JAmEs WhIttAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com A robbery suspect was arrested at the airport in Grand Cayman on Monday after being spotted on a British Airways flight by an off-duty police officer re- turning from holiday. Dan Davar Kelly of Cayman, who has been charged in connection with the armed robbery of a West Bay bakery in 2010, was on a “red list” issued by Interpol of Cayman Islands crim- inal suspects who had left the jurisdiction. He was attempting to re- turn to Grand Cayman on a British Airways flight from London, via the Bahamas, when he was recognized by the officer, a fellow pas- senger. The officer con- firmed the suspect’s name through the flight mani- fest and alerted authorities on the ground. The landing was delayed briefly. Police Commissioner David Baines said, “The off- duty officer identified the wanted person on the BA flight and was able to fore- warn officials, with the as- sistance of the BA flight crew, in the Cayman Islands, which resulted in the per- son’s detention and arrest without incident or danger to others on the flight.” Kelly appeared in Summary Court on Tuesday afternoon on separate charges of common assault and failing to surrender to custody in 2013. He was remanded to appear in Grand Court on Friday. He was charged and first brought to court in 2011 in connection with a robbery at Caribbean Bakery in West Bay. The Interpol website lists Kelly as being subject to a red notice, meaning he is wanted by Cayman au- thorities. It lists the charges against him as robbery and possession of an imita- tion firearm with intent to commit an offense. Guatemala aRRests 16 in healthcaRe scandal GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan authorities have arrested more than a dozen public servants and private citizens in connec- tion with a healthcare cor- ruption case. Prosecutors allege Wednesday that offi- cials at the Guatemalan Social Security Institute took money to switch con- tracts for the provision of medicine and treatment to kidney patients. Several patients died following the change. Prosecutors and a U.N. commission investi- gating criminal networks in the country raided homes and detained 16 people on suspicion of fraud, influence trafficking and other charges. Social Security president Juan de Dios Rodriguez is among the suspects. The commission was also involved in uncov- ering a customs corrup- tion scandal last month.3 LOCAL&REGIONAL Cayman Compass • Thursday May 21, 2015 The government’s Passport2Success training program is increasing its upper age limit of partici- pants from 20 to 22 years old, Employment Minister Tara Rivers announced this week. The program, on a case- by-case basis, will also begin taking trainees up to the age of 25 who are recommended by the National Work- force Development Agency, she confirmed. The increase in the age limit is being introduced in response to the popularity of the program and to the con- cerns of people ages 15 to 24 who were surveyed in the 2014 Labour Force Survey, the minister said in a state- ment released this week. In the statement, which quoted the minister’s com- ments to Passport2Success graduates at a recent gradu- ation ceremony, Ms. Rivers said, “The purpose of these training and employment programs must be to respond to the needs of the commu- nity as presented. As min- ister, my aim is to not only continue to build on the suc- cess of the Passport2Success program thus far, but to also expand its reach as ap- propriate in order to better meet the needs of this criti- cally important population – our young people.” Attendees at the gradu- ation ceremony heard that five of the graduates from the round of the program that began in January have se- cured employment. One other is continuing an internship, two are pursuing further ed- ucation at the University College of the Cayman Islands, one is beginning a nursing program and another is continuing a bachelor of science degree. That round of the program was open to un- employed single mothers. The Passport2Success program is an initia- tive of the Ministry of Education, Employment and Gender Affairs. So far, 355 people have been through the program. Handing out certifi- cates to the graduates, Ms. Rivers said, “Each of you has proven your com- mitment to the program, proven your commitment to your personal develop- ment and proven that you can achieve success. You de- serve this honor of being a Passport2Success graduate.” Internship placements were offered to partici- pants by Cayman Airways, the courts – Judicial Administration, Foster’s Food Fair, Chrissie Tomlinson Memorial Hospital, Health Services Authority, Eclipze Hair and Nail Design, Marriott Beach Resort, DHL, The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, Caribbean Utilities Company and Kirk Freeport. Another key aspect of Passport2Success is tracking the graduates 12 months after they have completed the program to see how they are doing. Another group of young single Caymanian mothers graduated from the program last year and recently held a reunion. Program coordinator and director of The Wellness Centre Shannon Seymour said she was delighted to hear of the success of this group. “I am excited to report that 68 percent of the graduates [13 out of 19] are employed at present. A positive pat- tern is emerging; of the three single mothers cohorts that have reached their 12-month reunion, 64-68 percent of the participants of these cohorts have obtained employment by that time. I believe that while the needs of these cohorts are uniquely significant, the pro- gram appears to yield consis- tently positive outcomes for this group.” Minister Rivers has vis- ited this group to wish them well and to en- courage them to work hard and make the most of the Passport2Success Program. To apply for the next round of the program starting in September and geared toward Caymanians aged 17 to 22, visit www.passport2success. ky or contact the NWDA at nwda.training@gov.ky or 945-3114. The Camelot Auction Sponsored by: Friday 29th May 2015 @ The Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman Cocktail hour from 6:30pm – 7:30pm Dress code Black Tie or Theme Oriented RSVP: krissieford@gmail.com With an array of international entertainers, from all over the globe, you don’t want to miss this. Be there to experience an amazing and incredible fun event. For more information call 928-9723. The Rotary Club Of Grand Cayman Presents Grand Cayman’s number one premier charity auction and dinner Government training program ups age limit Employment Minister Tara Rivers, Passport2Success Coordinator and Director of The Wellness Centre Shannon Seymour, NWDA Manager of Training and Development Dianne Connolly and Passport2Success Instructor Hylton Grace with the most recent graduates of the Passport2Success program. Rising tides help dislodge ship SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A cruise ship carrying nearly 3,500 passengers and crew spent the early hours of Wednesday anchored off Bermuda after being grounded on a reef close to the British island. The ship was expected to be back on course to Boston on Wednesday after repairs were made to its steering system, officials said. Norwegian Cruise Line said a rising tide helped free the ship and push it into deeper water late Tuesday after being stuck for nearly six-and-a-half hours, but the company added that the ship dropped anchor and would wait for an inspec- tion for any damage. “All guests and crew are safe and there were abso- lutely no injuries,” a com- pany statement said. The ship had just set off for Boston on Tuesday when it ran aground after a tem- porary malfunction in the steering system forced it slightly off course, the com- pany said. The ship, with 2,443 passengers and 1,059 crew members aboard, would be inspected by a team of experts before re- suming its voyage, the statement said. Passenger Rachel Hansen, from Londonderry, New Hampshire, spoke to The Associated Press by phone and said the ship was about three miles from Bermuda when it ran aground. “We definitely felt it,” she said. “We were in the middle of eating dinner … There was a shudder for maybe 30 seconds to a minute and then there was a sudden stop.” Hansen said she and her family gathered essential belongings and joined other people who went to the top of the ship to see what had happened. “We had crew members running around in a panic, and we felt like we had to panic,” she said, adding that overall, the majority of crew members reacted calmly and quickly. As the hours went by, she said passengers settled into their evening routine and the ship still held entertain- ment shows as planned. The Norwegian Dawn was on a seven-day, round-trip cruise to Bermuda, where it spent three days in port. The situation raised con- cern among those sched- uled to travel from Boston to Bermuda aboard the Norwegian Dawn on Friday, including Nicole Boucher of Uxbridge, Massachusetts. She said she had plans to travel with her mother and young daughter to cel- ebrate their birthdays, but Norwegian cruise officials told her they didn’t know yet if the ship will available. “It was a girls’ trip,” she said. “My mom actu- ally let me know through Facebook and said, ‘Oh, this is our luck.’ Freed from reef off Bermuda, cruise ship to head to Boston The ship, with 2,443 passengers and 1,059 crew members aboard, would be inspected by a team of experts before resuming its voyage, the statement said.The islands’ most-trusted news source 4 – EDITORIAL – Opinion&Letters The Cayman Compass welcomes comments, opinions and viewpoints from readers. Letters to the editor can be emailed to editor@pinnaclemedialtd.com, submitted via www.caymancompass.com, sent by post or hand-delivered to the Compass office. It’s as “official” as it gets: The Cayman Islands’ Seven Mile Beach is the best stretch of sand, sea and sky on Earth. Do you have any idea how many beaches exist in the world? Frankly, we don’t either. Makes no difference. People can argue all they want about the method- ology and results of the recent rankings by U.S. News Travel — indeed, that’s half the fun of such lists — but as far as we here at the Compass are concerned, the publication’s assignment of Seven Mile Beach to the “top spot” is spot on. Our advice to doubters? Chill out. Go to the beach. Simply to be included among the dozen most attractive beach vacation destinations on the globe is a positive thing for Cayman. To lead the rankings, however, is a potential marketing bonanza. The Department of Tourism and local industry businesses would be well-advised to capitalize on the moment and the momentum presented by the desig- nation. The ad copy writes itself — “Seven Mile Beach: No. 1 in the world” — or something to that effect, packaged with any of the glorious images that Seven Mile Beach willingly presents to camera lenses at any given moment, every day. Forget the “CaymanKind” campaign; if tourists chose their destinations based on how “kind” its hosts were, the world’s nunneries would be booked solid, and Paris, France, famous for its rudeness, would be a tourism ghost town. The views of Seven Mile Beach are so magnifi- cent that we often find ourselves reassuring skeptical persons from abroad that the photos they are viewing have not been subjected to any process of altera- tion, filtration or colorization. (“We swear, that’s what Cayman really looks like!”) In other words, the natural beauty of Seven Mile Beach (and Cayman, in general) is such that it “sells itself” — and in turn sells Cayman as a place of interest for potential employment, immigration, investment and residence. Ponder, for a moment, the countless number of deals (business, personal and matrimonial) that have been struck, over a cold beverage, against the backdrop of Seven Mile Beach’s turquoise waters, white sands and cerulean sky. Throw in Cayman’s famous sunsets, and it’s a wonder we can get any visitors to leave at all. As U.S. News Travel points out, however, Cayman’s success as a tourist destination can’t be attributed solely to Mother Nature. There also continues to be a great deal of excellent work being done by our tourism-oriented businesses. “Brimming with luxury hotels and casual restaurants, the Cayman Islands leave travelers with little to complain about,” according to the publication. If they think Cayman is “brimming” with high-class offerings for visitors now, just wait a few more years, when Dart opens up the hotels and restaurants it has under way, when other developers have completed their various renovation and construction projects, and when the country really starts to feel the positive knock-on economic effects generated by initiatives all across Grand Cayman, such as Health City Cayman Islands. As we have said before, we believe our country is on the cusp of a new “Golden Age” of economic expansion that will rival, and quite probably surpass, any of the earlier booms that comprise what we call the “Cayman Miracle.” Seven Mile Beach is the natural miracle upon which Cayman’s tourism industry is founded (in communion with the vibrant coral reefs just off the coast), but the real “secret” to Cayman’s success has always been human ingenuity and bold entrepreneurialism. We’re No. 1! Seven Mile Beach best in world Thursday May 21, 2015 • Cayman COmpass The withering of the death penalty WASHINGTON – Without a definitive judicial ruling or other galvanizing event, a pe- rennial American argument is ending. Capital punishment is withering away. It is difficult to imagine moral reasoning that would support the con- clusion that an injustice will be done when, years hence, the death penalty finally is administered to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon terrorist who placed a bomb in a crowd and then strolled to safety. Sentencing to death those who commit heinous crimes satisfies a sense of moral proportionality. This is, however, purchased with disproportionate so- cial costs, as Nebraska seems to be concluding. Nebraska is not a nest of liberals. Yet on Wednesday its 49-member unicam- eral Legislature passed a bill abolishing the death penalty 32-15. Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican, vows to veto it. This comes at a time when, nationwide, exon- erations of condemned prisoners and botched executions are dismay- ingly frequent. Nebraska’s death penalty opponents, including a majority of Nebraskans, say it is ex- pensive without demon- strably enhancing public safety or being a solace to families of murder victims. Some Nebraska families have testified that the ex- tended legal processes sur- rounding the death pen- alty prolong their suffering. That sentiment is shared by Bill and Denise Richard, whose 8-year-old son was killed by Tsarnaev. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments about whether one component of a three- drug mixture used in lethal injection executions – and recently used in some gro- tesquely protracted ones – is unreliable in preventing suffering that violates the Eighth Amendment pro- scription of “cruel and un- usual punishments.” States use the drug in question because more effective drugs are hard to acquire, partly because death pen- alty opponents are pres- suring drug companies not to supply it. For this, Justice Antonin Scalia blamed a death penalty “abolitionist movement.” Justice Samuel Alito asked, “Is it appropriate for the judiciary to countenance what amounts to a guerrilla war against the death penalty, which consists of efforts to make it impossible for the states to obtain drugs that could be used to carry out capital punishment with little, if any, pain?” Justice Anthony Kennedy wondered, “What bearing, if any, should be put on the fact that there is a method, but that it’s not available because of opposition to the death penalty? What relevance does that have?” The answers are: Public agitation against capital pun- ishment is not relevant to ju- dicial reasoning. And it is not the judiciary’s business to worry that a ruling might seem to “countenance” this or that social advocacy. The conservative case against capital punishment, which 32 states have, is threefold. First, the power to inflict death cloaks gov- ernment with a majesty and pretense of infallibility dis- cordant with conservatism. Second, when capital punishment is inflicted, it cannot later be corrected because of new evidence, so a capital punishment re- gime must be administered with extraordinary compe- tence. It is, however, a gov- ernment program. Since 1973, more than 140 people sentenced to death have been acquitted of their crimes (sometimes by DNA evidence), had the charges against them dismissed by prosecutors, or been par- doned based on evidence of innocence. For an un- sparing immersion in the workings of the govern- mental machinery of death, read “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson, executive di- rector and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. Third, administration of death sentences is so sporadic and protracted that their power to deter is attenuated. And expen- sive, because labyrinthine, legal protocols with which the judiciary has envel- oped capital punishment are here to stay. Granted, capital punishment could deter: If overdue library books were punishable by death, none would be overdue. But many crimes for which death is reserved, including Tsarnaev’s crime of ideological premedita- tion, are especially difficult to deter. Those who favor capital punishment because of its supposed deterrent effect do not favor strengthening that effect by restoring the practice of public ex- ecutions. There has not been one in America since 1937 (a hanging in Galena, Missouri) because society has decided that state-in- flicted deaths, far from being wholesomely didactic spectacles, are coarsening and revolting. Revulsion is not an ar- gument, but it is evi- dence of what former Chief Justice Earl Warren called society’s “evolving stan- dards of decency.” In the essay “Reflections on the Guillotine,” Albert Camus wrote, “The man who enjoys his coffee while reading that justice has been done would spit it out at the least detail.” Capital punishment, say proponents, serves so- cial catharsis. But admin- istering it behind prison walls indicates a healthy squeamishness that should herald abolition. George Will’s email address is georgewill@washpost.com. © 2015, Washington Post Writers Group Sentencing to death those who commit heinous crimes satisfies a sense of moral proportionality. This is, however, purchased with disproportionate social costs ... GEORGE F. WILL Nebraska’s lethal injection chamber at the State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Neb., in July 2010. - Photo: AP Printed and Published by: Caymanian Compass Limited (a subsidiary of Pinnacle Media Ltd) Compass Centre Shedden Road, George Town send us yOur VieWs Or neWs: P.O. Box 1365 Grand Cayman, KY1-1108 Cayman Islands Telephone: (345) 815-0095 Email: newsdesk@pinnaclemedialtd.com adVertise With us: Telephone: (345) 949-5111 Email: sales@pinnaclemedialtd.com Website: www.caymancompass.com PUBLISHERS daVid r. legge and Vicki l. legge EdITOR-In-CHIEf daVid r. legge A MEMBER OF THE INTER-AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION “Give light and the people will find their own way”5 LOCAL NEWS Cayman Compass • Thursday May 21, 2015 One-Day Workshop The Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman June 8, 2015 America’s #1 Success Coach www.Thrive.ky | info@Thrive.ky (345) 945-1515 | (345) 525-7070 Founder of the book series Chicken Soup for the Soul Tickets Still Available! JACK CANFIELD JackCanfield 4X12_4x12 Jack Canfield 5/5/15 6:33 PM Page 1 UCCI gets international accreditation James WhIttaker jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com The University College of the Cayman Islands has been granted international ac- creditation for the first time in its history. UCCI President Roy Bodden said the move was a “giant step forward” for the University College and would help answer critics of the institution. “For those who were won- dering as to our legitimacy, they need wonder no more,” he said. “The college is now internationally benchmarked for the first time.” UCCI was granted accred- itation following an inspec- tion and site visit by the U.K.- based Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges and Universities, known as ASIC. The accreditation applies to the institution itself and the inspection covered ev- erything from the physical structure of the college to the qualifications of the staff and the range and quality of the courses offered. Mr. Bodden said UCCI is also seeking independent ac- creditation of its programs. Last week, the college’s business programs were granted the status of “can- didate for accreditation” with the U.S.-based Board of Commissioners of the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education. Mr. Bodden said this was the first step in having the courses sanctioned by the in- ternational body. “It shows that the courses are recognized internation- ally and that they are valued by employers.” He said the nursing and teaching programs were accredited through the University of West Indies, while work was under way to secure accreditation for all programs offered at the college. Mr. Bodden said raising the credibility of UCCI had been part of his remit when he took over as president. He said having the college accredited was an important step. “I consider this a mile- stone,” he said. “I have been here six years and that is what I set out to do. I could not have done it without great faculty and staff. “Now we have to maintain it. We have to be re-accred- ited every four or five years, so we can’t rest on our lau- rels. To achieve accredita- tion and have it taken away would be a disgrace.” ASIC is an accreditation body for private colleges of- fering academic, technical and vocational training. The organization has ac- credited schools all over the world, including in the U.S., India, Malaysia and Botswana, as well as more than 100 private colleges in the U.K. Lee Hammond, the in- spector who visited Cayman in March, said accreditation is used by the schools for marketing purposes, as well as to bolster credibility. Man charged for keeping Money wrongly placed in account Five charges sent to Grand Court Carol WInker cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com A man with a business bank account is scheduled to appear in Grand Court on five charges relating to alleged wrongful transfers to that ac- count which he then kept and used. The sums involved were CI$127,100 and US$174,689.47. Gary Owen Mullings, 41, returned to Summary Court on Tuesday, when Magistrate Valdis Foldats invited pros- ecution and defense attor- neys to double check the cat- egory of the charges. It turned out that “dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit” is a cate- gory A offense, which means it must be dealt with in the Grand Court. Defense attorney Richard Barton said that had been his position when the matter first came to court on April 21. Crown counsel Kenneth Ferguson agreed. Details of the first charge of retaining a wrongful credit are that, on Dec. 8, 2014, CI$127,100 was wrongly transferred to a specific bank account for which Mullings was the account holder and signatory. The allegation against him is that, knowing or believing the transfer was made in error, he failed to take reasonable steps to cancel the credit. The second charge is sim- ilar, except that it relates to the sum of US$174,689.47. Mullings is then charged with acquiring criminal property, namely CI$57,900 cash, by way of ATM with- drawals between Dec. 10 and Dec. 29, 2014. He is further charged with acquiring US$35,800 cash the same way in approximately the same time period. The final charge is using criminal property. Details are that he used CI$37,719.40 from the account by means of debit card point-of-sale trans- actions at various locations for the purchase of goods and services between Dec. 9 and Dec. 29, 2014. The magistrate directed Mullings to attend Grand Court on Friday, June 5. Mr. Bodden UCCI has been granted accreditation by the U.K.-based Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges and Universities. - photo: taneoS raMSayThe islands’ most-trusted news source 6 Thursday May 21, 2015 • Cayman Compass directly to Mr. McLaughlin, who had left the Legislative Assembly chamber at this point in the opposition lead- er’s debate. “We seldom see eye to eye on much, but you know in the deepest cham- bers of your conscience that we are both right in our opposition to one man, one vote.” Mr. McLaughlin, during his budget policy address last week, said that imple- menting one man, one vote in the form of single-member constituencies would be an- other campaign promise kept by the Progressives- led government. The premier has alluded to concern among his own political caucus that some form of “at-large” representa- tion should be added to the single-member districts plan. At-large candidates would be elected by a vote of the entire island. “This is the concern of the entire government team,” Mr. McLaughlin said last fall. “To split the Cayman Islands into 18 or 19 constituencies is going to result in such small constituencies, in many in- stances, that the result of the elections process could be easily manipulated.” Those concerns were ex- pounded on this week in a statement made to the Cayman Compass by George Town MLA Winston Connolly. Mr. Connolly said he was seeking the Progressives-led government’s support in in- troducing term limits for elected politicians, along with some way of stopping the political handouts cur- rently being given to local voters on a perennial basis during election season. “If the system that we currently have is perpetu- ated, we could see the control of certain boundaries [similar to] the garrison politics situ- ation we see in Jamaica,” Mr. Connolly said. “It would be prudent to put in checks and balances now. “If someone is very mo- tivated to win at all costs, a smaller boundary will give them a great opportunity to ‘buy’ their seat. I would hope that it would not get to the stage where people take it upon themselves, out of pa- tronage, to intimidate other voters to vote for a specific candidate or other candi- dates not to run in an elec- tion through force or threat. “Term limits and il- legal handout [laws] may curb or lessen the brunt of those who may be so in- clined, but, at the very least, it will let those politicians who are in power know that they have a limited time to make things happen; that they will have to deal with jobs and immigration rather than simply throw money at a problem.” Mr. Connolly said he would file a private members’ motion in the Legislative Assembly ahead of the September meeting if the government does not want to take up this issue on its own. “We have to come to- gether on topics that are universal and that affect people’s lives,” he said. “I don’t mind taking this for- ward, even if it’s just me. I was taught right from wrong and also that sometimes when you take a stand to do the right thing, it may only be you taking that stand. If it costs me my seat, that’s fine.” prices. Certain catchy do- main names, for example www.luc.ky, are being held back from general sale to be auctioned in the hope of a cash windfall. Michael Ward, director of registrar operations for Uniregistry, said there would also be a secondary market, with companies buying up names they be- lieve will be popular and attempting to sell them on at higher prices. Neither the firm nor ICTA has any involvement or control in that market, he said. “There will always be investors and early adopters in any industry,” Mr. Ward said. “The domain name market, and in this case the .ky extension, is no ex- ception to investors looking for a liquid asset. The scale may not be significant ini- tially but it will exist.” That is already starting to happen locally, he said. “I have seen a few in- stances of registrants listing .ky domains for sale or lease. These are af- termarket domain names, where a registrant is trying to sell his or her domain for a premium price. Like any industry, the buyers and sellers determine the value.” An advertisement being circulated on email offering premium Cayman Islands domain names, includes around 40 website names for sale or lease. These in- clude rentals.ky, cayman- guide.ky and caregivers.ky. Len Jackson, of Cayman Business Guide, said he had registered the sites over the years as part of his listings business. He said he did not expect to make a profit on them and just wanted to let people know the do- main names were available and could potentially be snapped up on the global market after September. “Once they go on the open market, they could be held to ransom over them,” he said. Alee Fa’amoe, managing director of ICTA, said the authority only dealt with initial sales. He advised anyone with a business in Cayman that requires a website to secure the ad- dress before September. So far, around 4,000 .ky websites have been reg- istered under the new re- gime. Mr. Fa’amoe ulti- mately expects around 6,000 to register. He said anyone with a current reg- istration who has not paid would see their account go into deficit 45 days be- fore the Sept. 2 deadline, at which point the address will become freely available to anyone. Mr. Ward added, “Our main focus right now is to ensure that existing .ky reg- istrants claim their .ky do- mains and that Uniregistry assists in this process. There are still a fair number of local registrants who have not claimed their existing .ky domains. It is important these domains are claimed sooner than later to avoid possibly ex- piring on July 22 of this year or getting deleted on Sept. 2, 2015.” YOLA, Nigeria (AP) — All 275 women, girls and children rescued from Boko Haram and taken to the safety of a northeast Nigerian refugee camp have been taken into military custody amid sus- picions that some are aiding the Islamic extremists, a camp official and a Nigerian military intelligence officer said Wednesday. They said soldiers on Tuesday took the group from Malkohi Camp to the airport at Yola city, where a military plane flew them to an unknown destination. Spokesman Sani Datti of the National Emergency Management Agency, which manages the camp, said he was aware that soldiers re- moved the group but said he had no other informa- tion about an “entirely mili- tary affair.” The army spokesman for 23rd Armoured Brigade in Yola could not be immedi- ately reached for comment. An intelligence officer told The Associated Press the move followed fears that some women were commu- nicating at night with Boko Haram. The camp official said the suspicions were voiced during trauma counseling sessions. Both requested an- onymity because the affair is sensitive. The group – which includes 67 women and girls and the rest young children – was brought to Malkohi on May 2. Hundreds saved from Boko Haram now in military custody “I cannot support dividing this country up any more. That cannot be the kind of participatory democracy we want and the premier knows that.” McKeeva Bush, opposition leader CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Opposition party to petition against voting change CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Secondhand market sells Cayman domain names Obama calls climate change an ‘indisputable’ threat NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) — President Barack Obama has argued for action on climate change as a matter of health, environmental protection and international obligation. On Wednesday, he added na- tional security. Those who deny global warming are putting at risk the United States and the military sworn to de- fend it, he told cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Failure to act would be “der- eliction of duty,” their com- mander in chief said. He said climate change and rising sea levels jeopardize the readiness of U.S. forces and threaten to aggravate so- cial tensions and political in- stability around the globe. The president’s message to climate change skeptics was unequivocal: “Denying it or re- fusing to deal with it under- mines our national security.” “Make no mistake, it will impact how our mili- tary defends our country,” Obama said on a crisp, sunny morning at Cadet Memorial Field. “We need to act and we need to act now.” Seated before him were 218 white-uniformed gradu- ates, pondering where mili- tary service will take them in life. Obama drew a line from climate change to na- tional security that had multiple strands: ■■ increased risk of nat- ural disasters resulting in humanitarian crises, with the potential to in- crease refugee flows and worsen conflicts over food and water ■■ aggravating conditions such as poverty, polit- ical instability and so- cial tensions that can lead to terrorist activity and other violence ■■ new threats to the U.S. economy from rising oceans that threaten thou- sands of miles of high- ways, roads, railways and energy facilities ■■ new challenges for mili- tary bases and training areas from seas, drought and other conditions. “Around Norfolk, high tides and storms increas- ingly flood parts of our Navy base and an air base,” Obama said of military fa- cilities in Virginia. “In Alaska, thawing permafrost is dam- aging military facilities. Out West, deeper droughts and longer wildfires could threaten training areas our troops depend on.” Preparing for and adapting to climate change won’t be enough, he said. “The only way the world is going to prevent the worst effects of climate change is to slow down the warming of the planet.” He laid out his admin- istration’s steps to reduce carbon greenhouse gas emis- sions, including strict limits on emissions from vehicles and power plants. The gov- ernment expects those emis- sion reductions to provide the U.S. contribution to a global climate treaty that world leaders are expected to fi- nalize in December. Obama said it doesn’t take a sci- entist to know that climate change is happening. The evidence is “indisput- able,” he said. Without identifying the skeptics or those who re- sist action on climate change, Obama acknowledged the dif- ficult terrain in Washington. “The politics will be tough, but there is no other way.” He re- peated: “This will be tough.” Obama’s climate change agenda has drawn strong po- litical opposition from the GOP-led Congress and faces a number of legal challenges. Many Republican lawmakers either have denied the science of climate change or have dis- tanced themselves from it, saying they lack the expertise to issue an opinion. Some of the 2016 GOP presidential candidates have rejected unilateral moves to address the issue, saying they could hurt the U.S. economy. The Republican chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, meanwhile, issued derisive retorts to Obama’s address, questioning his focus on cli- mate change when the Islamic State group is on the move in Iraq and Syria, refugees are multiplying and much in the world is amiss. “What does the president of the United States say today? Well, it’s climate change we have to worry about,” said Sen. John McCain of Arizona. “Our adversaries are not motivated by the weather; they are emboldened by America’s withdrawal from the world,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas. President Barack Obama and Ensign Christian Robert von Stralendorff after he received his diploma and commission on Wednesday at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. - PHoto: aPThe islands’ most-trusted news source 7 Cayman Compass • Thursday May 21, 2015 IN CASH AND RANDOM PRIZES! $100,000 2015 REGISTER ONLINE: flowersseaswim.com Entry Fee CI$30 or US$37.50 ALL REGISTRATION PROCEEDS TO SPECIAL OLYMPICS CAYMAN ISLANDS Swim and win! June 13, 2015 23rd Annual Flowers One Mile Sea Swim June 15, 2015 Flowers International 5k & 10k Swims • Over 40 airline tickets to 23 destinations including Europe, North America and The Caribbean • Weekend stays at The Reef resort, Hemingways Vouchers and weekend rentals by National Car Rentals • Gift certificates from Red Sail Sports, Dolphin Discovery and Anytime Fitness • Blackberries, Smart Phones and Digicel Tablets • Special prizes from Flowers Group and more... number of these jobs will be added late in the current budget year. The additional staff will be going to government’s Needs Assessment Unit, which focuses on the provi- sion of social assistance to lower income families, the Cayman Islands Judicial Administration and the Department of Education. In all, salary hikes ac- count for $14 million of the personnel cost increase pro- jected during the next budget year. Healthcare costs for employees are budgeted to rise by about $5 million in the coming year, and pay- ments to the civil service pension fund will increase by more than $1 million. Government has strug- gled to contain personnel costs over the past five years, according to budget re- cords. Those costs have in- creased from $213.3 million in the 2011/12 budget year to $238.9 million in the 2012/13 financial year. The unaudited actual fig- ures for the government’s 2013/14 budget year put per- sonnel costs at $238.1 mil- lion and anticipated costs for the current budget at around $232 million. Cayman’s government em- ployment mushroomed in 2001 when it began hiving off certain civil service job functions into what are now known as statutory authori- ties and government-owned companies. At that point, 4,034 people worked in the Cayman Islands civil service. According to the govern- ment’s 2013/14 human re- sources report, 3,571 people worked in the central gov- ernment and 2,275 were em- ployed in the separate public sector entities. A Public Authorities Bill, aimed at downsizing the out- side entities and bringing many of them back under the direct control of the cen- tral government, is one of the proposals legislators are ex- pected to consider within the next year. Government personnel costs up $20M The 4 percent cost of living pay raise will effectively be the first pay increase the civil service has received since 2008. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Gyrocopter pilot facing 6 charges WASHINGTON (AP) — A Florida man who piloted a gyrocopter through miles of America’s most restricted air- space before landing at the U.S. Capitol is now facing charges that carry up to nine- and-a-half years in prison. The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia said Wednesday in a state- ment that a grand jury has indicted Douglas Hughes on six charges. He is scheduled to appear Thursday in federal court in Washington. A federal public defender listed in the court’s online re- cord as representing Hughes did not immediately respond Wednesday afternoon to a telephone message and email requesting comment. Hughes, who took off from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was arrested April 15 after he landed on the Capitol’s West Lawn. Hughes has said his flight was intended to call at- tention to the influence of big money in politics. The stunt also led to a congressional hearing and exposed a gap in ensuring the safety of build- ings in the city. The charges Hughes now faces include two felo- nies: operating as an airman without an airman’s cer- tificate and violating air- craft registration require- ments. Those charges carry a maximum of three years in prison. He is also facing three misdemeanor offences of vi- olating national defense air- space, each carrying a max- imum of one year in prison. Hughes, 61, who had been employed as a postal carrier and lives in Ruskin, Florida, also faces a misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle falsely labeled as postal car- rier. The tail section of Hughes’ gyrocopter carried a Postal Service logo. That charge car- ries a statutory maximum of six months in prison. The charges Hughes faces also carry potential fines. The indictment says that if he is convicted of one or both of the felonies, prosecutors will ask that a judge order him to forfeit the gyrocopter. During a court appear- ance the day after his ar- rest, Hughes was ordered placed on home detention. He is not allowed to return to Washington except for court appearances and meetings with his attorney, and must stay away from the Capitol and the White House. He is also barred from operating any aircraft. In this April 15 file photo, a bomb squad member approaches the gyrocopter that Florida pilot Douglas Hughes landed on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. - PHOTO: APThe islands’ most-trusted news source 8 Community Calendar ■ Community Calendar is published Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is available to charitable or nonprofit organizations. Items should be submitted at least three working days before publication. Information must include name of sender, signature and contact number. ■ Items may be faxed to 949-2662, brought to the Cayman Compass office on Shedden Rd. or emailed to cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com at least three days in advance of publication. Thursday May 21, 2015 • Cayman Compass will be available for consultation at Dr. Vivek’s offi ce at Pasadora Place from 26 to 28 May. For appointments please call 945-6077 Visiting Gynecologist THURSDAY, MAY 21 BRAC COURT: Summary Court is held from 10 a.m. at the Aston Rutty Civic Centre today and tomorrow. VAS OPEN STUDIO: The Visual Arts Society offers painting sessions today and May 28. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with instructor. $25 per session for members, $35 non-members. Sessions at 1-4 p.m. for intermediate artists, with no instructor, $10 for members, $15 non-members. Watler House Studio on the Pedro Castle grounds. Contact 546- 9422 or visualartcayman@ yahoo.com. SATURDAY, MAY 23 PhOTOgRAPhy WORkShOP: National Gallery Education Centre, 3-6 p.m. Participants can use their own SLR camera and learn how to take spectacular photographs. This class is for those who may not have had any previous formal training in photography, but are interested in it as a hobby or an avocation. For course details, email education@nationalgallery. org.ky or call 945-8111. VAS DRAWINg: The Visual Arts Society offers life and still life drawing sessions on Saturdays beginning today, 9 a.m.-noon. Classes at Watler House Studio on Pedro Castle grounds. Open to all levels. Six sessions, $125 for members, $145 non-members. Contact 546- 9422 or visualartcayman@ yahoo.com. INTERNATIONAL gIRL: Pageant to choose International Doll, Entertainer of the Year, Miss Photogenic and other category winners. Art and Recreation Centre, Camana Bay, 6:30 p.m. Optional showcase, Friday, May 22, 7 p.m. same venue. Admission per night $20 pre-paid, $25 at the gate, $8 for children 6-11. Weekend passes, $35. Tickets available at Funky Tang’s, Funky Monkey, Panache Hair Salon and Spa. hURRICANE PREPAREDNESS: Representatives of Hazard Management Cayman Islands will be at Cox Lumber Company this morning and Uncle Bill’s Home Improvement Centre this afternoon to meet with residents, answer questions and hand out disaster awareness information. Residents are encouraged to visit the stores and enter a drawing to win preparedness kits. gIRLS BRIgADE: West Bay Girls Brigade Company hosts a Talent/Spring Fashion Show at the John Gray Memorial Church Hall. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. Show time 7 p.m. Admission is $10; $5 under age 12 (includes light refreshments). Cupcakes will be on sale. Tickets available now or at the door. Call 926-3842 or 322-2212. ChALkFEST: Annual Chalkfest competition at Camana Bay along Market Street, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. This family event includes a DJ, face painting, balloon animals, a magician show and more. The competition is open to all ages and abilities. Registration fee $5 for kids, $10 for adults. Proceeds benefit the National Gallery Outreach Program. Prizes awarded. Entry categories are Primary (5-10 years old), Middle School (11-13), High School (14-17) and Adults (18+). Chalk provided free; participants are encouraged to bring rags, sponges and buckets to help with blending and covering large areas. Free water and sunscreen. SUNDAY, MAY 24 CONCERT: The Symphonic Wind and String Ensemble from God’s Bible School & College, Cincinnati, Ohio, will perform at the Church of God (Holiness) Red Bay at 6 p.m. All are invited. Admission is free. FUN RUN: Cayman Academy hosts a “Walk for a Child” 5K fun run from 6 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Resort, adjacent to the North Sound Golf Course. Registration is $10 for adults and $5 for under 12 and all Cayman Academy students. Register at the school, Kings Sports Centre gym, Funky Tang’s or the Seventh-day Adventist conference office. Part proceeds to the Bethany Butler Art National Gallery Scholarship Fund. TUESDAY, MAY 26 NATIONAL CONSERVATION COUNCIL: General meeting from 2-5 p.m. in the ground floor meeting room of the Government Administration Building, Elgin Avenue. This meeting is open to observers from the public. The agenda is available on the Department of Environment’s website at www.doe.ky/conservation- council-meeting-2/. WEDNESDAY, MAY 27 NOSOTROS: Spanish- speaking poets and performers – and those who simply enjoy la lengua de Cervantes – are invited to join this group, whose mission is to build bridges and create connections through culture. Monthly open mic night, 7-8:30 p.m. at Books & Books. For more information, contact Michel Powery at 917-0335. FOOD hANDLERS: Certification courses in basic food hygiene are offered by the Department of Environmental Health today, and June 10 and 24; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the DEH conference room in the Environmental Centre, 580 North Sound Road. $15 per person covers all materials and fees; pay at DEH headquarters, 580 North Sound Road, between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. Call 949-6696. THURSDAY, MAY 28 PhOTOgRAPhy PANEL DISCUSSION: Photography subject vs. content, plus composition. National Gallery Education Centre. 6-7:30 p.m. Panel chaired by Jaime Hahn, with guest photographers. Admission $5 for non- members; free for members. Refreshments will be served. FRIDAY, MAY 29 PROPOSALS FOR ESTABLIShINg CORAL NURSERIES: The Department of Environment invites proposals from those interested in establishing coral nurseries. Following Cabinet’s approval of a policy for managing coral nurseries, the department is accepting proposals through May 29, with projects to commence in October 2015 or later. Proposals should be for establishing nurseries for Acropora corals and eventual outplanting on Cayman’s reefs. Proposals or requests for information may be submitted to DoE@gov.ky. SATURDAY, MAY 30 FUNDRAISER FAMILy EVENT: Youth and young adults of Cayman Islands Baptist Church are holding a Fundraiser Family Event to support summer missions. Activities include garage sale, dinner sale, car-wash- a-thon, prayer station, silent auction. From 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Pedro Castle Road, Savannah. For more information, contact Pastor Mike at 946-2422. WORShIP gAThERINg: Marriott resort, 6 p.m. Worship, dance and arts from ministries throughout the island and abroad. Tickets available from Funky Tang’s, Christian Enlightenment Centre, Corner restaurant or 926-4228. Cost is $10 adults, children under 12, free. Contact info@ HarvestFellowshipCayman. com. SELLINg ART: Visual arts Society offers a half-day workshop on how to sell artwork. $25 members, $35 non-members. Contact 546- 9422 or visualartcayman@ yahoo.com. hURRICANE PREPAREDNESS: Representatives of Hazard Management Cayman Islands will be on hand at A.L. Thompson’s this morning and Progressive Distributors this afternoon to meet with residents, answer questions and hand out disaster awareness information. Residents are encouraged to visit the stores and enter a drawing to win preparedness kits. CAyWRITERS: Anyone interested in writing is invited to join other local writers who share their journeys, stories and writing resources, ask advice and discuss challenges. Group meets last Saturday of the month. New members welcome. From 5:30-6:30 p.m. Books & Books. SUNDAY, MAY 31 NATIONAL gALLERy INTERNS: The National Gallery is accepting applications for the 2015/16 yearlong NGCI Deutsche Bank Internship. Today is the deadline to apply. For application forms, visit www. nationalgallery.org.ky and for additional information call 945-8111 or email education@nationalgallery. org.ky. GENERAL INTEREST MOSQUITO SPRAyINg: Mosquito Research & Control Unit is conducting aerial operations over mosquito-breeding swamp areas on Grand Cayman and the Sister Islands. These operations involve low-level flights during the mornings and late afternoons. More information and schedules can be found on the MRCU Facebook page. For any enquiries, call 949-2557. yOUNg IMAgE MAkERS: The Short Film Competition is in its final stages. Films of 15 finalists have been uploaded to www.youtube. com/caymanculture for the public to pick a favorite. The deadline to vote is June 5 at 4 p.m. hIV TESTINg: Free HIV testing is available every Tuesday year-round at the Cayman Islands Red Cross on Thomas Russell Way. Anyone wishing to get tested should arrive by 9 a.m. Testing will be available every Tuesday, 9-10 a.m. Contact HIV/AIDS Coordinator Laura Whitfield at 244-2631. REEF RESTORATION: Certified divers are invited to work on the Cayman Magic Reef restoration in George Town. A schedule of work dates and times is posted on Facebook under Cayman Magic Reef Recovery. Dates, times and places are listed under Events, for volunteers to check and sign up. MUSEUM TOURS: The National Museum provides guided tours for students and school groups free of cost. Students will gain an understanding of Cayman’s geological formation, flora and fauna, seafaring and rope-making heritage, political history and more. Contact the museum to book a tour in advance at 949-8368 or email info@ museum.ky. ART FOR STUDENTS: The National Gallery hosts free Active Learning Sessions for students of all ages. Part tour, part art activity, the tour takes students up-close with the National Collection – more than 50 years of Caymanian art history – providing links to literacy, mathematics, social studies and science. For information or to book a session, contact 945-8111 or education@ nationalgallery.org.ky. FREE gALLERy TOURS: Free guided tours of the temporary exhibition Plastic In paradise: Scenes of Real Life Fictions by Heidi Bassett Blair are available for students of all ages at The National Gallery. Students will discuss the exhibition and get hands-on art activities that incorporate literacy and numeracy. Until July 3. For information or to book a tour contact 945-8111 or education@nationalgallery. org.ky. SChOOL REgISTRATION: Registration of students enrolling in or transferring to government schools for the 2015/2016 school year is open through June 26 at the Department of Education Services and the Cayman Brac Teachers Centre. Registration forms available at government schools, the Department of Education Services at 130 Thomas Russell Way, George Town, or the Brac Teachers Centre. Registration for reception classes is open for qualifying children who are age 4 before Sept. 1, 2015. gRANTS FOR ThE ARTS: Registration is open for grants from the Cayman National Cultural Foundation for art-related projects that need some financial help. CNCF hands out grants twice a year. Visit www. artscayman.org/grants-for- the-arts for guidelines and a registration form. Deadline is July 15. ThRIFT ShOP SEEkS CLOThINg: The Humane Society Thrift Shop is desperately low on stock. Clothing, accessories, toys, small appliances, shoes, bric-a-brac and pictures are needed. Please bring donations to the Humane Society building on North Sound Road. BEThESDA COUNSELINg CENTRE: At 68 Mary St. Caters to all who seek help. Call 946-6575. Open Monday to Friday 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Appointments available Saturdays and late evenings. Center is owned and operated by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. For more Community Calendar events, visit www.compasscayman. com/caycompass/portal/ community-calendar.The islands’ most-trusted news source 9 Cayman Compass • Thursday May 21, 2015 Four killed at UN compound in S. Sudan The U.N. mission in South Sudan says four civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed when two mortar bombs exploded inside its compound in the town of Melut in Upper Nile state. Come and join us for a good cause Camana Bay 2pm to 8pm Friday May 22nd Contact: 322-1741 or Email: sudur11@yahoo.com Nepal Earthquake Cayman Fundraiser Banks fined $2.5 billion in currency fraud case Manipulated foreign currency WASHINGTON (AP) — Four big banks will pay $2.5 bil- lion in fines and plead guilty to criminally manipulating global currency market going back to 2007. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Barclays and The Royal Bank of Scotland con- spired with one another to fix rates on U.S. dollars and euros traded in the huge global market for currencies, according to a settlement an- nounced Wednesday between the banks and U.S. Justice Department. Currency traders allegedly shared customer orders through chat rooms and used that information to profit ahead of their clients. The criminal behavior took place between December 2007 and January 2013, ac- cording to the agreement. A separate bank, UBS, has agreed to plead guilty to ma- nipulating key interest rates and will pay a separate $203 million criminal penalty. The broader settlement was long expected. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission had fined those banks a combined $1.4 bil- lion for their involvement in the scheme last year. Big banks have been fined billions of dollars for their role in the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis. But even so, the latest penalties are big. Including a separate agreement with the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday, the banks will have paid nearly $9 billion in fines and penalties for their manipulation of the $5.3 tril- lion foreign exchange market. Unlike the stock and bond markets, currencies trade nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The market pauses two times a day, a moment known as “the fix.” Traders allegedly shared client orders with rivals ahead of this pause, pumping up cur- rency rates to make profits. Global companies, who do business in multiple curren- cies, rely on their banks to give them the closest thing to an official exchange rate each day. Banks are supposed to be looking out for their cli- ents instead of using their clients’ needs to profit ahead of them. It is rare to see a bank plead guilty to any wrong- doing. Even in the aftermath of the financial crisis, most reached what were known as “non-prosecution agree- ments” or “deferred prosecu- tion agreements” with regula- tors, agreeing to pay billions in fines but not admitting any guilt. If any guilt was found, it was usually one of the bank’s subsidiaries or divisions – not the bank holding company itself. One of the most no- table banks to plead guilty to any criminal wrongdoing was investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert, which plead guilty to fraud in the 1980s following the implo- sion of the junk bond bubble. US Air Force lAUncheS ‘Secret’ mini-ShUttle into SpAce CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A mysterious space plane rocketed into orbit Wednesday, carrying no crew but a full load of tech- nology experiments. The Air Force launched its unmanned mini-shuttle late Wednesday morning. An Atlas V rocket lifted it up and out over the Atlantic. This is the fourth flight for the military re- search program, which is shrouded in secrecy. The last X-37B mission lasted 674 days and ended with a California touchdown. Altogether, the first three X-37B flights spanned 1,367 days, or three-and- a-half years. The Air Force won’t say how long this particular mission will last or where it will end. Public commentary about the launch ended barely five minutes after liftoff, well before the space plane was supposed to settle into a relatively low orbit. The X-37B looks like a miniature version of a NASA space shuttle. It is 29 feet long – about one- quarter the length of a space shuttle — and its wingspan is about 15 feet. Like the old shuttle, the Boeing-built X-37B launches vertically and lands horizontally, is reus- able, and has lots of room for experiments. But no one flies on them; they are op- erated robotically. This X-37B – also known as OTV, or orbital test vehicle – has a mate- rials-sample experiment on board for NASA, as well as an experimental electric- propulsion thruster for the Air Force. But perhaps the most intriguing payload, at least from the public point of view, is a solar- sail demo sponsored by the Planetary Society. The society’s chief ex- ecutive officer, Bill Nye, better known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, said a large, light, shiny Mylar sail measuring 344 square feet was tucked into a small box for liftoff. The intent is for sunlight to propel it, once it is released and deployed in orbit. Including a separate agreement with the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday, the banks will have paid nearly $9 billion in fines and penalties for their manipulation of the $5.3 trillion foreign exchange market. BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — Burundi police on Wednesday battled hundreds of pro- testers, killing an army sol- dier and wounding at least one other in continuing un- rest over the president’s bid for a third term in office. Amid the unrest, President Pierre Nkurunziza post- poned parliamentary elec- tions for a week from May 26 until June 5. The soldier was part of a group of army troops trying to stop the police from firing at protesters who were throwing stones in the Nyakabinga neighborhood of Bujumbura, the capital, Capt. Dismas Nduwamungu told The Associated Press. The soldier was hit in the chest and died and another soldier was wounded in the leg, he said. When the soldier died the policemen from the unit that was firing on the protesters ran to their car and drove off, Nduwamungu said. The in- cident is being investigated, said the presidential adviser for media Willy Nyamitwe. In the capital’s Musaga neighborhood, a senior police officer was seen pushing for- ward his juniors, who seemed reluctant to move toward the hail of stones thrown by protesters. The parliamentary elec- tions were delayed in re- sponse to requests by the international community and many political actors in Burundi, Nkurunziza said in a speech on state radio. Nkurunziza said only an insignificant part of the cap- ital is experiencing unrest while the rest of Burundi is peaceful. He said that “99.99 per- cent of the territory is in peace … In Burundi we have 119 communes but the pro- tests are only in four com- munes in Bujumbura,” he said. He called on the demon- strators to stop. The weeks of unrest in the capital, boiled over last week when an army gen- eral announced a coup which was crushed within 48 hours by army forces loyal to the president. The army has remained largely neutral in the street battles between the police and protesters. Burundi unrest: 1 dead; president delays legislative polls Demonstrators on Wednesday run from a group of soldiers linked to the presidential guard, firing to disperse them in the Nyakabyga neighborhood of Bujumbura, Burundi. - photo: ApNext >