Black Immigrant Daily News

The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) reported that three men appeared before the court this week, after being arrested over this past weekend, in relation to burglary incidents that took place this month, August, 2022.

Saturday arrests

On Saturday, August 27, a 48-year-old man of George Town was arrested in relation to a burglary incident that took place at a business on Shedden Road in George Town. The man has since been formally charged with Burglary and Failing to Provide a Specimen of Urine. He appeared in court yesterday, Monday, August 29, where he was remanded until September 6.

On the same day, the RCIPS responded to a report of a burglary that took place at a business located on North Church Street in George Town. While in attendance, the officers were provided with a description of the burglar and made checks in the surrounding areas. A 45-year-old Cuban National was located a short distance from the scene of the burglary and subsequently arrested on suspicion of burglary. The man appeared in court yesterday, Monday, August 29 and was also remanded until August 31.

Sunday arrests

A third man, age 22, of George Town, was arrested on Sunday, August 28, in relation to three separate burglary incidents that took place at a business in George Town on August 15, August 20 and August 28.

On Sunday, August 28, police arrived at the location and the man fled on their arrival. Officers apprehended the man after a short foot pursuit and he was arrested on suspicion of burglary.

The 22-year-old-man of George Town has since been formally charged with three counts of Burglary. He is expected to appear in court today, August 30.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

GraceKennedy (GK) is set to acquire 100 per cent of Scotia Insurance Caribbean Limited (SICL). The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

The announcement of the impending acquisition comes exactly one year after GK acquired another Bank of Nova Scotia subsidiary, Scotia Insurance Eastern Caribbean Limited (SIECL). The business was subsequently rebranded as GK Life Insurance Eastern Caribbean Limited (GK Life).

Scotia Insurance Caribbean is a licensed life insurance company. It offers credit protection to customers on personal loans, residential mortgages, personal lines of credit, personal and small business credit cards to customers in Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Turks & Caicos Islands.

GK Group CEO Don Wehby said the acquisition of SICL is another step in GK fulfilling its strategy to grow its insurance business in the Caribbean and expand the footprint of the GF Financial Group in the region.

“Along with last year’s acquisition of SIECL, the addition of SICL, and the five territories where it operates, will mean that we have expanded GK’s life insurance business to a total of 13 markets in less than two years,” Wehby said.

Wehby further noted that GraceKennedy would continue to pursue mergers and acquisitions as the key strategic driver of growth for GraceKennedy Group.

“Our M&A Unit is in discussions regarding M&A transactions locally and internationally, and we are looking forward to what the future has in store,” he disclosed.

Since 2019 GraceKennedy has steadily been strengthening its presence in the insurance market. Among the acquisitions were Key Insurance in 2020 and SIECL in 2021. In 2019 the company also entered a joint venture partnership with Musson Jamaica to launch Canopy Insurance.

Steven Whittingham, Deputy CEO of the GK Financial Group with direct responsibility for the insurance segment commented:” We are looking forward to further building out GK’s life insurance business with the addition of SICL and to serving our customers in these new markets. We are well-positioned to establish GK as a major pan-Caribbean insurer.”

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

News

Bradley “Ronnie” Benn – Photo courtesy social media

The two men shot dead in Longdenville, Chaguanas, on Saturday have been identified.

Police named them as Bradley “Ronnie” Benn and Nathan Griffith, both from Belmont.

At around 5.15am on Saturday, residents of Ravine Sable heard multiple gunshots and called the police. An unknown silver car was seen leaving the area.

The police found the bodies with gunshot wounds to their heads.

One was wearing a vest and boxer shorts and the other only boxers.

At the time, the men were unidentified, and Central Division police said they were not from the area.

Insp Jones, Sgts Elvin and Bridgemohan, Cpl Mendoza, PCs Griffith, Jaggessar and other police from the Homicide Bureau Region III spoke to several people and gathered evidence.

On Tuesday, the police confirmed that relatives later identified the bodies.

Bradley worked as a driver with TCM Ltd, a police report said.

The police were still gathering information on the victims.

Autopsies are set for Friday at the Forensic Sciences Centre in St James.

No one has been arrested, and Sgt Elvin is leading investigations.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

News

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar – Photo Marvin Hamilton

ALTHOUGH her constituency of Siparia is known as “Sand City,” Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said there is no evidence that the sand dumped on the highway in Monday’s protest in Claxton Bay came from Siparia.

The Prime Minister, in a Facebook post, alluded to OWTU union boss Ancel Roget and the United National Congress (UNC) as being involved in Monday’s protest by workers in the scrap-metal industry.

The workers want the six-month government-imposed export ban lifted. They lit fires and blocked the highway, causing miles of traffic, to make their point on Monday.

Claiming the allegations are false, Roget has already signalled his intention to sue Rowley for maligning him.

At the UNC’s Monday night virtual meeting, Persad-Bissessar, like the song made popular by Shaggy, also distanced herself and her party from the accusation, saying, “It wasn’t me.”

“This government continues to launch attack after attack on the economic livelihoods, social well-being, freedoms and liberties of the people of our nation.

“I saw the man (Rowley) said today that something happened on the highway and it was Mr Roget and the UNC.

“Somebody called me and asked me if the geologist did a test on the sand and the sand came from Siparia. We used to call Siparia the sand city. Did the geologist do a test?

“The UNC had no part of that, I make that very clear. We had nothing to do with that. The persons involved would answer for themselves.”

She also defended the right to protest.

“They have a right, as everyone else, to protest, to take action, and that is happening all over the country.

The government, she argued, “attack us all the time, freedoms, liberties of our citizens, in every which way they can, verbally and otherwise. But we in the UNC will never allow them to turn our country into a dictatorship state. “

Since 2015, she said, when the People’s National Movement (PNM) wrested power from her People’s Partnership government, that was the intention.

“They have hijacked our blessed country and taken us down a path of destruction.”

Suspicions that the PNM watches their every UNC event were cemented she said, as PNM conversation is always about UNC activities.

But she insisted, “The UNC is alive and functioning as a great party.”

She said the Opposition is merely accounting to the people through these forums, a concept which is alien to the PNM.

She called Rowley “a very foolish man,” asking if he was going to blame her, as she claimed he usually does, for the massive floods in west Trinidad on Monday.

“When the whole country is under flood, they laugh at us and say South and Central build houses in lagoon. Which lagoon is in the west? Damian (Senator Lyder) you tell me, you live up there.

“The whole country is under flood. Whether it is north, south, central, east, west – wherever it is, everybody is suffering.

“Whilst we recognise they find ways to give to PNM they are not giving to the PNM grassroots. They are giving to their friends and financiers, bigshots.

“Everybody is under pressure under this wicked government. There is nothing for anyone under this PNM in this country.”

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

La comisionada residente, Jenniffer González Colón, anunció el martes, nuevas once partidas de fondos federales que suman 8,785,172 dólares para iniciativas de alfabetización digital, fomentar la inclusividad en las disciplinas STEM, así como la investigación y otras actividades académicas.
El Instituto de Servicios a Museos y Bibliotecas, bajo el Programa Laura Bush de Bibliotecarios del Siglo 21, le otorgará  219,200 dólares al Consorcio de Bibliotecas Metropolitanas de Puerto Rico (COBIMET).

“Esta organización sin fines de lucro trabaja para mejorar los servicios de biblioteca virtual y destrezas de información en la era digital. Los fondos son para llevar a cabo un proyecto de tres años para mejorar su programa existente de Certificación de Competencia en Alfabetización Digital, basado en los estándares de cumplimiento de la Ley ADA (ley de americanos con discapacidades)”, dijo la comisioanda residente en declaraciones escritas.

“El Instituto de Servicios de Museos y Bibliotecas es la principal fuente de apoyo federal para las bibliotecas y museos del país a través de la concesión de subvenciones, la investigación y el desarrollo de políticas”, añadió.

La también copresidenta del Caucus del Congreso de Instituciones Sirviendo a los Hispanos, anunció fondos para centros de educación superior. Entre ellos 299,981 dólares para el recinto de San Germán de la Universidad Interamericana bajo el programa Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate, que busca preparar a estudiantes elegibles para estudios de doctorado a través de la participación en la investigación y otras actividades académicas; y 443,801 dólares a la Universidad Ana G. Méndez bajo el Programa de Búsqueda de Talento, este identifica y ayuda a las personas de entornos desfavorecidos que tienen el potencial para tener éxito en la educación superior.

La Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Aguadilla, recibirá 297,601 dólares bajo el Programa de Matemáticas y Ciencias, diseñado para fortalecer las habilidades matemáticas y científicas de estudiantes participantes. Estos tres programas son financiados por parte del Departamento de Educación federal.

La Fundación Nacional para las Humanidades (NEH) dentro del programa de apoyo a pequeñas y medianas instituciones para el cuidado de importantes colecciones de humanidades asignará 10,000 dólares al Recinto de Arecibo y 10,000 dólares al Recinto de Mayagüez de la Universidad de Puerto Rico.

La Fundación Nacional de las Ciencias (NSF, por sus siglas en inglés) aprobó 199,824 dólares a la Universidad Politécnica de Puerto Rico para su “Proyecto Piloto HSI: Mejorando la Educación Subgraduada de Ingeniería de Pregrado Usando un Enfoque de Manufactura Aditiva Integrada”.

Para la Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR), NSF aprobó 2,516,239 dólares para su proyecto RaMP: Investigación y Mentoría para Posbachilleratos en Ciencias Biológicas, esto ayudará a la creación de redes que brinden experiencias de investigación y tutoría a recién graduados universitarios que han tenido pocas o ninguna oportunidad de investigación y capacitación relacionada durante la universidad.

El Recinto de la UPR en Mayagüez recibirá 394,428 dólares para su proyecto, titulado “Investigación Colaborativa: CISE-MSI: DP: IIS: Hybrid-Architecture Symbolic Parser
with Neural Lexicon”; y el Recinto de Cayey recibirá 304,098 dólares para su proyecto.

“MRI: Acquisition of X-Ray Difraction System” para el que también se beneficiarán investigadores de otras universidades.

La Administración Nacional de Aeronáutica y el Espacio (NASA) otorgó más de 4.1 millones de dólares a través de su programa de subvenciones y becas para fomentar la diversidad e inclusividad en las ciencias, tecnología, ingeniería y matemáticas (STEM) en los grados de kínder a cuarto año. Entre los beneficiados de esta asignación está la Universidad de Puerto Rico, que sirve como subrecipiente al estar bajo la Fundación de Investigación Old Dominion en Norfolk, Virginia, como parte de acuerdos.

La comisionada se unió al llamado de la NASA a estudiantes entre sexto a cuarto año para que participen en el segundo reto estudiantil TechRise de la agencia, que invita a equipos de estudiantes a desarrollar, construir y lanzar experimentos científicos y tecnológicos en globos de gran altitud con la ayuda de un educador.

La NASA explicó que el objetivo es inspirar una comprensión más profunda de la atmósfera de la Tierra, las características de la superficie terrestre y el clima, así como la exploración del espacio, la codificación, la electrónica y el valor de los datos de prueba. Los equipos deben presentar sus propuestas de experimentos antes del 24 de octubre de 2022.    https://www.futureengineers.org/nasatechrise

NewsAmericasNow.com