(CNS): Former Governor Stuart Jack, Attorney General Sam Bulgin and the FCO's Caribbean Policy Adviser Larry Covington could face a criminal inquiry for allegedly lying to Metropolitan Police officers investigating corruption within the RCIPS, a Scotland Yard review has concluded. Jack has been cited by the Met in a letter to the current governor, Duncan Taylor, for possible attempts to pervert the course of justice over a break-in at the Cayman Net News office in 2007 by two of its staff. The senior investigating officer of "Operation Tempura", Martin Bridger, has claimed that Jack did not tell him that he had authorised the search and that if he had, the investigation would have lasted for only a couple of weeks. However, Jack has categorically denied the allegations made by Bridger, implying that he had told him about his part in the break-in.

(CNS) Updated 4:57pm: Police have now named the two men who died in separate water-related incidents this weekend. Pablo Jose Perez Iarza, a member of the Uruguay Special Olympic team, who was in the Cayman Islands to participate in the Butterfield 800 meter swim, was found dead in the ocean off Seven Mile Beach on Saturday afternoon during the race. Suspected of having a cardiac arrest while competing, the police confirmed Monday that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. In a second incident, Joseph Edward Johnson of Flagstaff, Arizona, who was visiting the Cayman Islands on vacation, drowned at Rum Point on Sunday when he got into difficulties in rough waters around the reef. An attempted daring rescue by the police helicopter unit was unable to save the man’s life.

(CNS): Alden McLaughlin has made Juliana O'Connor-Connolly speaker of the Legislative Assembly, giving him the necessary majority that he needs to form a government, while C4C MLA Tara Rivers is still waiting to decide on the Cabinet post she was offered immediately by the new premier. Marco Archer will be finance minister, Wayne Panton will be taking on the new financial services  ministry, and Deputy Premier Moses Kirkconnell will be minister for tourism and district administration. McLaughlin is taking on the new job of home affairs minister as well as premier but said that, based on discussions with his new team, he should maintain an oversight role and not have too large a ministry. (Photos courtesy Cayman27)

(CNS): The new premier in waiting was working with his team on Friday shaping the new government, which will have seven Cabinet ministers. However, Alden McLaughlin remained tight-lipped on how he would be putting together his new PPM government in order to secure a majority of ten, having won nine out of 18 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Faced with many options for securing a majority government, he told CNS that he could not reveal the likely shape of the new ruling group until he had sat down with his entire team and begun the discussions.

(CNS): The mission of international observers confirmed that the Cayman Islands elections were free, fair, genuine and transparent in their short interim report, which they delivered to the local press on Friday, validating the result. The mission went as far as giving the elections a 9/10 grade and said that while they were here to observe and make recommendations, there were lessons to carry from the Cayman Islands for other jurisdictions, especially the wide participation of women in the election process. However, the observers did raise concerns about the inequality of the multi-member system, which they said did not meet international standards and recommended that Cayman move to one man, one vote (OMOV).

(CNS Business): Despite comments by the former minority government that it was still investigating the value of the Ritz-Carlton sale before it was prepared to register the transfer, it appears that the last act of the interim PNA Cabinet was to accept the price and complete the transfer. Officials from Five Mile Capital Partners LLC announced Friday that some seven months after the sale the Cayman Islands Land Registry registered the transfers of Ritz-Carlton properties to the subsidiaries of RC Cayman Holdings LLC, RC Cayman Hotel Holdings Ltd and RC Cayman Property Holdings Ltd, new owners of The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. Read more on CNS Business

(CNS): A student from Cayman Prep and one from the Brac have been chosen as this year’s scholarship recipients by the UWC Cayman Islands National Committee. Tyleisha Galbraith (left), who is graduating from Cayman Prep and High School this summer, will be attending the United World College of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia. Simon Watson (right), who is graduating from the Layman Scott High School, will attend UWC Adriatic in Duino, Italy. Both students will undertake the rigorous two-year International Baccalaureate programme, a well-recognised and highly sought after pre-university qualification.

(CNS): Despite the fact that the leader of the United Democratic Party is going back to the Legislative Assembly with only two of his team, the results reveal that the trouncing was not as emphatic as one may first perceive as Bush still managed to collect more than 31% of the national vote compared to the approximate 43% taken by the PPM and the 25% picked up by the collection of various independents, PNA and C4C candidates. The UDP’s Teresa Pitcairn missed getting a seat by a mere 41 votes, securing 36% of the district vote, and her running mate Chris Saunders also attracted 30.5% of the vote.

(CNS): A group of 30 Cuban refugees who had turned up in the Sister Islands earlier this week, which includes three women and several return migrants, were in local waters close to the West Bay public beach Thursday morning at the end of Grand Cayman’s famous Seven Mile Beach. The makeshift craft in which the migrants arrived was escorted out of local waters by the authorities around lunch time but none of the migrants opted to land. The group were first spotted off South Sound in the early hours of (23 May) while Cayman's attention was firmly on its election results. The group then sailed into the West Bay area where they undertook repairs to their engine before opting to press on in their perilous ocean quest to Honduras in their makeshift vessel.

(CNS): The outgoing supervisor of elections pointed to the multi-member voting system, in the capital in particular, as the reason for such a long delay in the announcements of the final results of the 22 May General Election on Thursday morning. Kearney Gomez said that the count in George Town, which began on time, took so long due to a combination of the number of voters in the capital, the number of candidates running and, above all, the number of votes on each of the ballots. Although the polls closed on time and there were no recounts or disputes over any of the results, the physical act of tallying up so many ballots with multiple votes on them saw the count drag on until around 8am, some 11 hours after it started.

(CNS): The Cayman islands Government has opened a condolence book in memory of Edna Moyle, the former speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Cabinet Minister, district MLA for North Side and founding member of the new ruling party the PPM. Moyle died on the eve of Wednesday’s historic election (Tuesday 22 May) in the Cayman Islands hospital surrounded by her family after losing her battled with cancer. Government is inviting people to visit the LA or the administration buildings to pay their respects and tribute to a local political stalwart and a trailblazer for the women’s movement in Cayman. She was a member of the LA between 1992-2009 when she retired from the front line of politics but retained a keen interest.

(CNS): The 44-year-old diabetic man who had been missing from his West Bay home since Wednesday evening has been found. An RCIPS spokesperson said Friday morning that Delmore Ebanks was traced safe and well after being reported missing on Thursday. He had last been seen about 7.00pm Wednesday night (22 May) leaving his home in Fountain Road, West Bay. He told a family member that he was going fishing, but did not provide any further information. When he did not return home, his family contacted the police.

(CNS): With the PPM taking four seats in both George Town and Bodden Town, and Moses Kirkconnell being returned in the Sister Islands, the PPM will be able to form the next government with Alden McLaughlin at the helm. The UDP were wiped out in the capital, with the C4C taking two George Town seats while Mike Adam, the only UDP candidate with a hope throughout the count, fell at the final hurdle. The George Town count was announced outside the Family Life Centre at around 8:30am Thursday as Cayman could breath a sigh of relief that it had a stable administration and was not facing the prospect of horse-trading or backroom deals, with both Ezzard Miller and Arden McLean willing to back a PPM administration, securing the party a majority in Cayman's new 18-seat parliament.

(CNS) Updated: With the back and forth in the capital continuing, Kurt Tibbetts was still holding steady at the top of the poll at 7am Thursday morning, leading what was shaping up to be a victory for the PPM in George Town. The result was held up by the last box but with over 93% of the count complete, C4C candidate Roy McTaggart was still in second place while the Progressive's leader was secure in third place just a few votes behind him. The PPM's Marco Archer was safe in fourth place ahead of C4C's Winston Connolly, who was in fifth place, and Joey Hew was keeping up the rear for the Progressives in sixth, while Mike Adam remained outside the top six as the gap widened between him and Hew.

(CNS): Anthony Eden, Ozzie Bodden, Wayne Panton and Al Suckoo made a clean sweep in Bodden Town when the result came in at around 4:15am. The numbers positioned the Progressive as the potential new government but with the George Town count still underway, who will be the new premier remains in question. As the returning officers were announcing in districts there were no statistics immediately available at the command centre but the race was understood to be close in Bodden Town for the final seat. Meanwhile, the count continued in the capital where it was shaping up to be a straight head to head fight between the C4C and PPM.