Health officials are searching for an unknown person who could be the missing link between two infected people in one household.Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said two cases in one household had different mutations…
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Fleurs famous restaurant remains closed until level 1
“You don’t have to open, you only open if you can abide by the law.”That was why Moeraki restaurant Fleurs Place was remaining closed under level 2, owner Fleur Sullivan said.Between the restaurant’s small space and the type of…
Venezuela talks – mountain went forth and produced a mouse
By Sir Ronald Sanders
(The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and the Organisation of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are his own)
It was predictable that, in an attempt to show that they are capable of collaboration, the rival political groups in Venezuela would pick their spurious claim to two-thirds of Guyana’s territory as a show of unity.
Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali, quickly and rightly rejected this grand but cheap show of solidarity, displayed at yet another attempt to broker an agreement between the warring Venezuelan parties.
The Venezuelans were meeting in Mexico from September 3 to 6, in Norway’s third effort to mediate between the factions led by President Nicolás Maduro and pretender Juan Guaidó. Their joint statement “ratified Venezuela’s rights” over what they call “Guayana Esequiba”.
Of course, the statement changed nothing in Venezuela and did not improve the lives of its people, millions of whom have already voted with their feet. More than five million Venezuelans have fled the country, making Venezuela the country with the world’s second largest refugee crisis, exceeded only by war ravaged Syria. Indeed, the statement was met with a shrug by most Venezuelans except the political- military regime that have long held ambitions to seize the Guyana territory.
What the rival political factions in Venezuela should be focussing on is improving the dire conditions in which most Venezuelans live and restoring an economy and a country of which the Venezuelan people can be proud and to which the refugees can return.
But that’s the hard part. It would call for political compromise by the opposing parties, including the ceding of power by leading politicians on both sides; an agreement on an independent electoral machinery to organise Presidential and other elections in a transparent and trusted manner; open election campaigns with guaranteed media freedom; observation of the elections by international groups; credible machinery for spending the country’s oil and gas revenues; an agreed social welfare programme that does not discriminate politically; a judicial system that is independent; a military that stays out of politics; and an interim government comprised of the major political parties until elections are held.
The likelihood of achieving these major but necessary measures is extremely remote. Yet, both within Venezuela and in its diaspora and refugee community, there exists remarkably talented and skilled people in the areas of governance, economic development and finance. Given a stable political climate, they could rebuild their country,
It is right that Mexico, Norway and others should try to promote an agreement that would end the political impasse that has plagued the country and contributed to its rapid economic and social decline. But the joint statement on Guyana, that they oversaw from the Venezuelan factions, has not advanced their efforts in any way. The mediators merely grabbed the one thing that would not be contentious to Venezuelan parties. It gave the Venezuelan people no greater hope of rising out of the morass into which their country has sunk.
Responding to the joint statement by the Venezuelan Government and Opposition, the Guyana foreign ministry described it as “an overt threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Guyana” and went on to say, “Guyana cannot be used as an altar of sacrifice for settlement of Venezuela’s internal political differences”. In diplomatic but cutting language, the Guyana government said that while it “welcomes domestic accord within Venezuela, an agreement defying international law and process is not a basis for mediating harmony”.
The Venezuelan contention with Guyana is before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and Guyana says it will remain there, rebuffing a remark from Jorge Rodriguez, president of the Venezuelan Congress and leader of Maduro’s negotiating team, calling on Guyana “to resume the path of negotiations in order to reach an agreement on the territory.”
But Guyana has never negotiated with Venezuela on any “agreement on the territory”. Guyana has always maintained that the Essequibo is Guyana’s territory, an assertion that it has been prepared to put before the ICJ for a decision in keeping with a decision by the UN Secretary-General. For its part, Venezuela has rejected an independent hearing by the world’s leading international judges, indicating a lack of faith in the merits of their demand for Essequibo.
The Venezuelans base their claim on a memorandum, written in 1944, by an American lawyer, Severo Mallet-Prevost, who was a junior counsel for Venezuela at an 1899 Arbitration that settled the boundary between Venezuela and Guyana (then British Guiana). Shortly after Mallet-Prevost received from the Venezuelan government the Order of the Liberator for services to Venezuela, he allegedly wrote a note to his law partner that was opened after his death in 1949. In the note, he alleged the settlement of the boundary was the result of collusion between the British judges, the Russian President of the Tribunal and the American Judges. That is the pretext for the Venezuelan claim.
It is no wonder that no Venezuelan government wants to lay a case before the ICJ and prefers to cajole Guyana into direct negotiations where its military capacity, that it has used in the past, could be employed as leverage.
Great hope was placed in the talks in Mexico by the Venezuelan factions. At a meeting of the Organization of American States, I publicly expressed support for any further attempt to end the political impasse that would help Venezuela to rebuild in the interest of its people.
If the joint statement on Guyana by the Venezuelan politicians is all that the mediation produced, then the mountain went forth and produced a mouse.
The countries of the Americas must continue to hope that the talks, when they resume, will yet prove productive for the Venezuelan people.
Responses and previous commentaries: www.sirronaldsanders.com
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Kim Jong-un's dramatic weight loss sparks theories
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appeared visibly thinner during a celebration of the nation's 73rd anniversary in the capital city Pyongyang.
Newspaper Cover for 10th September, 2021
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New Yorkers were told Ground Zero air was safe. It wasn't
It took 100 days for the fires at Ground Zero to finally be extinguished.
Toxic, cancer-causing smoke and fumes hung over lower Manhattan for months.
New Yorkers described the acrid air as pungent and horrible.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: 9/11 twenty years on
READ MORE: Death toll could rise by millions from 'toxic' asbestos dust
Yet, incredibly, one week after the two hijacked planes brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, killing nearly 3000 people, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was telling New Yorkers "their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink".
More than 13,200 first responders and survivors have since been diagnosed with a variety of cancers, according to the World Trade Center Health Program.
And no wonder.
Dust from Ground Zero had many known carcinogens – soot, benzene, cement, asbestos, heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and dioxins – which were released into the air of lower Manhattan with the collapse of the towers.
Marcy Borders, a 28-year-old Bank of America employee who worked on the 81st floor of the North Tower, was dubbed "Dust Lady" after a haunting photograph of her, covered in white dust, was sent around the world on 9/11.
Fifteen years later, in 2015, she died aged just 42 after a year-long fight with stomach cancer.
For years Ms Borders had lived with fear over what the poisonous dust might have done to her body and health.
She had read the stories of first responders and others who had fallen sick and died, as medical evidence began to build a troublesome picture and trend.
At least 1880 first responders, survivors and workers who recovered bodies and cleaned up the wreckage have since died from illnesses which many attributed to their time at the site.
Those who arrived first on the scene received the greatest exposure to the toxic dust and smoke, and sustained the most severe health damage.
In the aftermath, men began to be diagnosed with rare breast cancers and prostate cancers at unusually young ages.
READ MORE: How one man escaped from the top of the World Trade Center
Leukemia, thyroid cancer, other cancers and chronic respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses were being diagnosed among the young and old, including residents and students who lived around Tribeca.
9News.com.au has plotted data from the World Trade Center Health Program, including the 15 most common cancers and other diseases and illnesses dating back to 2015.
There has been a notable increase across various cancers and diseases.
After tracking the health of 27,000 police officers, construction workers, firefighters, and municipal workers over the nine years following the September 11 attacks, researchers at The Mount Sinai Medical Center found substantial and persistent mental and physical health problems among 9/11 first responders and recovery workers.
The study found an increased risk of developing thyroid cancer, leukemia and prostate cancer, as well as a slightly elevated overall risk of cancer.
Lead author Moshe Shapiro of the Mount Sinai study stopped short of calling it an "epidemic of cancer" but said "there is evidence of increased risk for certain cancers among WTC-exposed responders".
READ MORE: What happened to the kids in famous 9/11 photo
READ MORE: The victims of the World Trade Center terror attacks
In 2015 Christine Todd Whitman, then head of the EPA, admitted for the first time that she had been wrong to tell New Yorkers there was nothing wrong with the air, in the days after the attack.
Ms Whitman denied she had been lying, when she said at the time: "I am glad to reassure the people of New York … that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink."
She told The Guardian she "cringed" every year the anniversary of the attacks rolled around.
"Because I know people will bring up my name, they blame me, they say that I lied and that people died because I lied, [they say] people have died because I made a mistake," she said.
"I'm very sorry that people are sick," she said. "I'm very sorry that people are dying and if the EPA and I in any way contributed to that, I'm sorry. We did the very best we could at the time with the knowledge we had."
In a 2003 the EPA's inspector general criticised the agency's handling of the crisis, saying it had no basis for its pronouncements about air quality in the days after the attacks.
GALLERY: Lost and found in the rubble of twin towers
Words: Mark Saunokonoko
Interactive graphics: Tara Blancato
Scores of Westerners leave Kabul on breakthrough flight
Some 200 foreigners flew out of Afghanistan on an international commercial flight from Kabul airport overnight, the first such large-scale departure since US and foreign forces concluded their frantic withdrawal at the end of last month.
The Qatar Airways flight to Doha marked a significant breakthrough in the bumpy coordination between the US and Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers.
A dayslong stand-off over charter planes at another airport had left dozens of passengers stranded and cast doubt on Taliban assurances to allow foreigners and Afghans with proper travel documents to leave the country.
READ MORE: Australia withdraws from Afghanistan after evacuating thousands
A senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to brief the media, provided the number of Westerners on board and said that two very senior Taliban officials had helped facilitate the departure. Americans, green card holders and other nationalities including Germans, Hungarians and Canadians were on the flight, the official said.
As Taliban authorities patrolled the tarmac, passengers presented their documents for checking, and sniffer dogs inspected luggage laid out on the ground. Some of the veteran airport workers had returned to their jobs after fleeing during the harrowing chaos of the US-led airlift.
Irfan Popalzai, 12, among those boarding the flight with his mother and five brothers and sisters, said his family lives in Maryland.
"I am an Afghan, but you know I am from America and I am so excited (to leave)," he said.
READ MORE: Taliban uses whips against women protesting all-male government
As the group prepared to board earlier, Qatari officials gathered on the tarmac of Kabul airport to announce the airport was ready for the resumption of international commercial flights after days of repairs. Extensive damage to the travel hub in the frenzied final days of the US airlift that evacuated over 100,000 people from the country had raised questions over how soon the transport hub could resume for regular commercial flights. Technical experts from Qatar and Turkey have been racing to restore operations.
"I can clearly say that this is a historic day in the history of Afghanistan as Kabul airport is now operational," said Qatari special envoy Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani.
"Call it what you want, a charter or a commercial flight, everyone has tickets and boarding passes," al-Qahtani added, noting that another commercial flight would take off on Friday. "Hopefully, life is becoming normal in Afghanistan."
The flight represents the first to depart from Kabul airport since American forces left the country at the end of August, their departure accompanied by a frantic airlift of tens of thousands of foreign citizens and Afghans fleeing the Taliban. The scenes of chaos, including Afghans plunging to their deaths after clinging to military aircraft that was taking off and a suicide bombing that killed 169 Afghans and 13 US service members, came to define the fraught end to America's two-decade war.
READ MORE: Afghanistan's new top cop has $6.7 million bounty on his head
A foreign diplomat, likewise speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to brief the media, said another 200 foreigners, including Americans, would depart in the next couple of days.
It remains uncertain what the resumption of international flights over the next few days will mean for the tens of thousands of Afghans desperate to flee Afghanistan's new Taliban leaders over fears of what their rule will hold.
Hundreds of other Afghans at risk after the Taliban takeover because of their past work with Americans have gathered for more than a week in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, waiting for permission to board privately chartered evacuation flights out of the country.
Although the Taliban assured the world they would let passengers with valid travel documents leave the country, many of those stranded at the northern airport did not have such papers.
READ MORE: Taliban say they have taken control of final Afghan province
Department of Cooperatives pledges continued support for Newtown Fishermen Co-op
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, September 9, 2021 (MMS-SKN) — The Department of Cooperatives played a key role in the revitalisation of the Newtown Fishermen Cooperative Society Limited, and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperatives and Environment, Ms Sharon Rattan, has pledged continued support for the society.
“The cooperative, while the oldest, it was dormant for some time and the Registrar of Cooperatives and the Deputy Registrar played a key role in helping to get them back on track,” said Ms Rattan. “We were very happy at the Ministry and at the Department of Cooperatives to help you to come on your feet again.”
The Permanent Secretary made the remarks on Wednesday September 8 at a press conference held at the Department of Fisheries on Newtown Bay Road where members of the society’s new Executive Board and Supervisory Committee were inducted in the wake of the annual general meeting that had been held on Thursday September 2.
Accompanied by the Registrar of Cooperatives Mr Clyde Thompson, and the Deputy Registrar of Cooperatives Mrs Earla Allen, Ms Rattan said that they were happy at the Department of Cooperatives to have given the moral and financial support, and the encouragement, that has enabled the society to stand proudly.
“I want to thank you for recommitting and I want to ask you to rebrand, and not just to jump on the bandwagon of rebrand because it is a 21st century word,” she advised. “I mean truly rebrand, as we are living in a generation of possibilities.”
She promised that the Department of Cooperatives will be there to guide them in every way, telling them that they can call on the Department every time and she introduced Ms Tracy Ann Gaskin, the Cooperatives Officer assigned to the society, and who was present at the press conference.
“Please stay in touch,” appealed the Permanent Secretary. “You provide a very important source of proteins for our diets and we look forward to that continuous access and availability.”
Inducted members of the Executive Board were President, Mr Craig Tuckett; Vice President, Mr Antonio Huggins; Treasurer, Mr Frank Farrell; Executive Member who will also serve as the PRO, Mr Glenroy Guishard; and Secretary Mr Damion Jacobs.
Members of the Supervisory Committee inducted were Chairman, Mr Wycliffe John, and floor members Mr Andrew Clarke, and Mr Wilmoth Buchanan.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources was represented by Ms Maritza Queeley, Head of Support Services Division, Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, who gave remarks on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Mr Ron Dublin Collins.
According to Ms Queeley, the Department of Marine Resources had supported the formation of the fisheries cooperative, and noted that it was a means by which fishers can pool their resources for the benefit of not just themselves individually, but for the community and the Federation as a whole.
With the revitalisation of the Newtown Fisherman Cooperative Society Limited, she pointed out that “it would give fishers in the Federation a greater opportunity to develop the fisheries product not just in catching fish and selling fish locally, but on a greater scale where product development and marketing will be encouraged and supported by this Department.”
Present at the induction press conference was the Area Parliamentary Representative for East Basseterre (St. Christopher One), the Hon Dr Geoffrey Hanley, who congratulated President Craig Tuckett and his entire team, and implored them to work together for the betterment of all of the fisher folks in the community.
“I stress – work together – noting that working as a team you are able to accomplish much more by doing that, and working as a team you certainly will be able to overcome the various challenges that you would be faced with,” said Dr Hanley.
In the meantime, the immediate past Area Parliamentary Representative for East Basseterre, Ambassador His Excellency Ian Patches Liburd, in a live telephone message said that today in an era of the Covid-19, when many people feel powerless to change their lives, cooperatives represent a strong, vibrant, and viable economic alternative that together a group of people can achieve goals that none of them could achieve individually.
“The Newtown Fishers Cooperative Society Limited will be expected to generate and provide an economic boost to the community as well and by extension to the entire country,” said His Excellency Liburd. “It is my further hope that your cooperative would be a democratic organisation controlled by its members, who should be allowed to actively participate in setting your policies and making your decisions.”
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Newtown Fishermen Cooperative Society Limited’s new Executive Board inducted
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, September 9, 2021 (MMS-SKN) — Federation’s oldest fishermen cooperative society and the largest based on membership, the Newtown Fishermen Cooperative Society Limited, recently held its annual general meeting at the Department of Fisheries on Newtown Bay Road, and the new Executive Board was inducted at a press conference held at the same venue on Wednesday September 8.
At the meeting which was attended by officials from the Ministry of Cooperatives and Environment, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources, President of the new Executive Board, Mr Craig Tuckett, informed that attempts had been made to revitalise and to restructure the cooperative society over the past year, and he thanked the hard work of the Department of Cooperatives.
“It is with that hard work that we saw our AGM being concluded last week Thursday the 2nd of September, right here at the Department of Fisheries and we elected a new Executive Board and a new Supervisory Committee,” said Mr Tuckett.
He added: “According to the Cooperative Act that we are managed under, and according to the regulations, after that AGM the Board and the Supervisory Committee are to meet with themselves to decide who will be the various officers and the duration of their terms. We are here to announce, to you the good people of St. Kitts and Nevis, who those persons are.”
Mr Craig Tuckett, President, will be serving for three years; Mr Antonio Huggins, Vice President, will be serving for two years; Mr Frank Farrell, Treasurer, will be serving for three years; and Mr Glenroy Guishard, Executive member, who will be serving for one year.
Secretary Mr Damion Jacobs, who was not present, will be serving for two years.
“We will endeavour to do what we can for the development of this very important institution in our community,” said President, Mr Craig Tuckett. “We will endeavour to reach out to the young people, and show them that indeed becoming a fisher is a lucrative business and while at the same time it helps with nation building and diversifying our economy.”
Members of the Supervisory Committee were introduced by their chairman, Mr Wycliffe John, who will be serving for a period of three years. He informed the meeting: “We are here to work, and we are prepared to work together.”
The other two members of the Supervisory Committee are Mr Andrew Clarke, who was not present and who will be serving for two years, and Mr Wilmoth Buchanan who will be serving for one year.
Giving remarks at the press conference were Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Cooperatives and Environment Ms Sharon Rattan, a representative of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources, Ms Maritza Queeley, and Area Parliamentary Representative the Hon Dr Geoffrey Hanley. Also giving remarks, via telephone, was the immediate past Area Parliamentary Representative Ambassador His Excellency Ian Patches Liburd.
Also present were Registrar of Cooperatives Mr Clyde Thompson, and his deputy Mrs Earla Allen who opened the press conference with a word of prayer, and the Cooperatives Officer attached to the Newtown Fishermen Cooperative Society Limited, Ms Tracy Ann Gaskin.
Treasurer Mr Frank Farrell, who gave the vote of thanks, took the opportunity to thank all the fishermen who have become members of the Newtown Fishermen Cooperative Society Limited. He added: “I would like some more fishermen to join the co-op, so if you are listening please come and join, and we will try to look after you.”
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President of the Newtown Fishermen Cooperative Society Limited, Mr Craig Tuckett, addressing the press conference held to induct members of the new Executive Board and Supervisory Committee. -
Chairman of the Newtown Fishermen Cooperative Society Limited’s Supervisory Committee, Mr Wycliffe John, introducing members of his committee.
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Caymans Reopen to Airlines
Minister of Transport and Tourism, Kenneth Bryan, has confirmed that airlines will resume commercial services to the Cayman Islands as of today, September 9– the first day of Phase 3 of the country’s phased reopening.
This will be the first time that commercial carriers other than national airline, Cayman Airways, and British Airways will touch down at Owen Roberts National Airport since the border closure on March 22, 2020.
The news came at a September 8 press briefing to update the country of the government’s reopening plans.
At least four airlines have indicated their willingness to resume commercial flights to Cayman– these are United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Delta Airlines.
Flights will no longer be limited to repatriation flights for essential needs only and will include vaccinated leisure travellers who do not reside in the Cayman Islands.
“It will not be business as usual overnight,” said Minister Bryan, who has reminded the public that the quarantine period will not change during phase 3, which is scheduled to end on October 14.
Securely verified vaccinated passengers will be required to quarantine for 5 days while unverified vaccinated travellers will quarantine for 10 days and unvaccinated travellers will be required to quarantine for 14 days. Negative PCR tests will be required for the quarantine period to end.
While commercial carriers will be allowed to start offering services, “the demand for flights from international gateways will determine how many flights and seats the airlines are prepared to offer,” explained Minister Bryan.
The minister indicated that there will be a steady increase in flights to Cayman in September and October on Cayman Airways. British Airways will also resume weekly services as of September 27 and will offer at least three flights per week via Nassau, Bahamas.
“Phase 3 represents our official reopening, but it will take a little while to return to business as usual,” said Minister Bryan.
“I want to ensure the good people of Cayman that the PACT administration is doing everything it can to keep you safe.”
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