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‘Due-Diligence’ Key to SKN CBI Success

The CEO of St Kitts and Nevis’ Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme, Les Khan, spoke about what makes the nation’s programme the ‘Platinum Standard’ of the industry.

While presenting to investors in China, Khan welcomed Chinese investors to apply and illustrated the programme’s success due to its longevity, due diligence, and commitment to surpass investor needs.

The St Kitts and Nevis CBI Programme is the longest-running in the world. It started in 1984 and was the first to offer such a programme to candidates worldwide. Since 1984, the programme has evolved to exceed industry standards and stand as an economic diversification solution for the Federation’s development. Countries around the world strive to follow its example, Khan noted.

More from AsiaOneRead the condensed version of this story, and other top stories with NewsLite.

“Our Platinum brand is based on a number of factors. One of the most important factors is the due diligence that we do on our clients,” he said.

The applicant vetting process is multi-layered and consists of checks done by agents, local service providers, the CBI Unit, and several international due diligence providers.

“This is all the rigour that we put around the due diligence and the actual application process to ensure that we maintain the Platinum brand, and we only ensure that individuals of high integrity coming to our Programme.”

The Unit has also implemented several modifications to meet investors priorities. Through its fast-track process in the Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF) option, applicants can gain approval within 60 days.

Investors can also add various dependants like parents, grandparents, children and siblings to their application to ensure their family stays united and can live, work and study in their new home if they choose.

Citizens of St Kitts and Nevis can also travel to 157 destinations for work or leisure visa-free or with a visa on arrival. Within all nations that offer CBI programmes within the Caribbean, the Federation has one of the strongest passports in the region and “is aggressively looking to expand visa-free access.”

Currently, the dual island has a limited time offer of USD 150,000 for a family of up to four under its SGF option, which is a USD 45,000 price reduction. “[This] attests that clients around the world trust the St Kitts and Nevis Programme, they trust that their investment is safe, that the investment is being used for growth within the country, that they are confident of the citizenship that they gain from St Kitts and Nevis,” he said.

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'Beyond infuriating': Melbourne footage slammed

The Victorian Government has slammed as "beyond infuriating" footage of patrons partying in a packed Melbourne pub believed to have been filmed just minutes before the new lockdown began.

A video uploaded to social media shows a packed bar on Chapel Street in the city's CBD heaving with partygoers, none of whom appear to be wearing a mask.

The footage was said to have been taken just 10 minutes before the state entered "Lockdown 4.0", a drastic measure imposed by the government in a bid to slow down Victoria's latest growing cluster of COVID-19 cases.

READ MORE: Potentially 'thousands' of casual COVID-19 contacts in Victoria

It is understood the footage has been forwarded to relevant authorities, who are investigating.

In a statement, a government spokesperson said the behaviour was selfish and an investigation would take place.

"This footage is beyond infuriating – Victorians will be rightly frustrated at these people who selfishly flouted the rules just before lockdown," the spokesperson said.

"Irresponsible gatherings like this put us all at risk – and it's insulting to all the Victorians working hard to prevent another outbreak of coronavirus in our community.

"This footage has been referred to the appropriate authorities for investigation, and they will take action as necessary."

READ MORE: The Melbourne exposure sites of greatest concern

Businesses 'deflated' by Lockdown 4.0

Meanwhile, day one of Victoria's state-wide lockdown has left thousands of small business owners and casual employees out of pocket and on edge.

Pressure is mounting for the state and federal governments to deliver a rescue package after non-essential businesses such as gyms and florists were forced to close.

Eli Hazell, who owns seven pilates studios across Melbourne, told 9News she has been forced to stand down about 50 staff amid the lockdown, many of whom are casual workers.

READ MORE: Businesses 'totally deflated' after being forced to close during lockdown

"They're all living pay cheque to pay cheque and we can't really help them out because we've got rent due next week, and no income this week," she said.

She is now facing a rent bill of $20,000, with no income for a week to pay it.

"It's really frustrating. We've been through this before and just feeling totally deflated."

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Bill Cosby Denied Parole After Refusing Therapy Program

 

The Pennsylvania parole board has turned down comedian Bill Cosby’s petition to be released from a 10-year prison sentence for aggravated indecent assault, citing his refusal to participate in a therapy program for sexually violent predators.

Laura Treaster, a spokeswoman for the state parole board, confirmed the decision, which was made on 11 May and first reported on Thursday by Nicole Weisensee Egan, author of the book Chasing Cosby, on her Facebook page.

Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said his client expected to be turned down. “We knew he was going to be rejected. He called me and told me that if he didn’t take the course, he would be denied,” He has maintained his innocence from the beginning.”

Cosby, now 83, would have become eligible for parole on 25 September after completing the three-year minimum term of his sentence. He was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison and designated a sexually violent predator on 25 September 2018, after being convicted earlier in the year of the rape of Andrea Constand, his former friend at Temple University, in 2004.

The once-beloved comedian known as “America’s Dad” has been serving his sentence in the state correctional institution at Phoenix, a suburb in Philadelphia.

Treaster said the board would not consider Cosby for parole again unless he completes the sexual violent predator therapy. He must also overcome a recommendation against parole from the state Department of Corrections and maintain a clear conduct record. Cosby was also told to develop a “parole release plan.”

She said the reasons for the negative recommendation by the corrections department, and Cosby’s prison conduct record, are not public information.

Cosby had a hearing before the Pennsylvania supreme court in December on his appeal of his conviction. The court has not yet ruled, and there is rarely any advance notice.

Wyatt said Cosby is doing as well in prison as can be expected.

“He’s hopeful,” Wyatt said of the supreme court appeal. “He’s cool as a cucumber.”

 

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Africa Needs 20m 2nd Doses, India Variant Hitting UK, COVID Origins, World Stats

WHO: Africa in ‘urgent need’ of 20 million second vaccine doses within six weeks

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for Africa called on Thursday for at least 20 million second COVID-19 vaccine doses to be sent to the continent within six weeks, saying people are in “urgent need.”

The regional office’s request for millions of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine shots comes as African officials are struggling to collect enough doses to give people their second shots within the eight to 12 week period after the first dose. 

WHO’s regional office also requested an additional 200 million doses of any WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccine to help the continent achieve the WHO director-general’s goal of vaccinating 10 percent of its population by September. 

“Africa needs vaccines now,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said. “Any pause in our vaccination campaigns will lead to lost lives and lost hope.”

Current status: Africa has administered about 28 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, amounting to less than two doses per 100 people living on the continent. Comparatively, 1.5 billion vaccines have been given worldwide, including almost 290 million in the U.S. 

Earlier this week, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out that more than 75 percent of all vaccines have been given out in only 10 countries, saying “a small group of countries that make and buy the majority of the world’s vaccines control the fate of the rest of the world.”

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Intel community: Competing COVID-19 origin theories not ‘more likely than the other’

The U.S. intelligence community said Thursday that it is unsure whether the coronavirus was more likely to have come from a lab or through human contact with infected animals.

A statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) describes an intelligence community split over competing theories for the origin of the virus.

Director of National Intelligence for Strategic Communications Amanda Schoch said in a statement that “the U.S. Intelligence Community does not know exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially but has coalesced around two likely scenarios: either it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals or it was a laboratory accident.”

“While two elements of the IC lean toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter — each with low or moderate confidence — the majority of elements within the IC do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other,” she added.

The statement did not identify which of the three agencies thought a lab scenario was more likely than zoonotic transmission, but it comes as the White House has backed efforts to reopen discussions around the lab scenario, which was initially dismissed as unlikely.

Follows: President Biden called on the intelligence community to “redouble their efforts” looking into COVID-19’s origins and report back in 90 days. 

The Senate passed a bill mandating the ODNI to declassify information about the virus’s origins on Wednesday night. 

The increased interest in how the pandemic began comes after The Wall Street Journal reported on a U.S. intelligence report earlier this week that said researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill with flu-like symptoms in November 2019.

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Three-quarters of new UK Covid cases could be India variant, says Hancock

Reported cases of variant reach almost 7,000, as it becomes dominant in Britain

Coronavirus - Tue May 25, 2021<br>An electronic notice board in Bolton town centre, one of the areas of the UK where the Covid variant first identified in India is spreading fastest. Picture date: Tuesday May 25, 2021. PA Photo. The Government has advised against all but essential travel and meeting indoors in eight areas of England where the variant is spreading fastest - Bedford, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, North Tyneside, Bolton, Leicester, Kirklees and the London borough of Hounslow. See PA story HEALTH Coronavirus. Photo credit should read: Peter Byrne/PA Wire

Three-quarters of new UK Covid cases could be India variant, says Hancock – video
Science correspondent
@NicolaKSDavis

 

Up to three-quarters of new UK Covid cases are now thought to be caused by the variant first detected in India, the health secretary has said.

The variant of concern, known as B.1.617.2, has been linked toa rise in cases in hotspots around the country. Data released on Thursday by Public Health England (PHE) shows 6,959 cases have been confirmed so far in the UK, up from 3,424 the week before.

Announcing the figures, PHE said hospitalisations were rising in some affected areas. “Hospital attendances and admissions are predominantly in unvaccinated individuals, highlighting how crucial it is that people in these areas come forward to receive vaccination,” it added.

Earlier, Boris Johnson said “we may need to wait” for the lifting of all Covid restrictions in England, planned for 21 June. The PM said he saw nothing “currently in the data” to suggest the government would have to delay unlocking but noted the signs of an increase in cases of the variant.

Dr Jenny Harries, the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, told a Downing Street press briefing the rise in cases of the variant could, in part, be down to increased testing in affected areas. She added that in some areas outbreaks had been squashed, while efforts continue in the north-west.

“I think it is really, really just on the cusp at the moment, if we see cases rise we are not clear yet quite whether that is a rise in the variant cases taking off or whether it is actually a rise because we are actively, quite rightly, detecting them and then challenging these chains of transmission,” she said.

On Thursday a total of 3,542 people were reported as testing positive for Covid in the UK – the highest figure since 12 April.

But experts warned the link was not yet broken because only 44% of adults had received both Covid jabs and the vaccines do not offer 100% protection against hospitalisation. “You can see that in Bolton, but you can see [it] most clearly in Scotland,” said Prof Christina Pagel, the director of University College London’s clinical operational research unit.

Scotland, where there have been outbreaks of the India variant in areas including Glasgow, had 98 patients in hospital with Covid on 26 May, up from 58 on 6 May.

Meanwhile, Bolton NHS foundation trust, which serves an area also hard-hit by the India variant, has seen the number of patients in hospital rise from 11 on 9 May to 41 on 25 May – the latest date for which figures are available.

Earlier in the day Hancock said about one in 10 people in hospital in current Covid hotspots had received both jabs, noting this suggested a “high degree of confidence” that the vaccines are very effective.

While experts have said two doses offer good protection against the India variant, it is somewhat weakened compared with the Kent variant, particularly after the first dose.

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WORLD STATS

Coravirus Cases:

169,671,394

Deaths:

3,526,317

Recovered:

151,405,453
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

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Latest News

May 28 (GMT)

Updates

  • 9,252 new cases and 404 new deaths in Russia [source]
  • 10 new cases and 1 new death in Laos [source]
  • 3,000 new cases and 425 new deaths in Mexico [source]

 

The post Africa Needs 20m 2nd Doses, India Variant Hitting UK, COVID Origins, World Stats appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

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Dominican Court Blocks Deportation of Fugitive Jeweller Choksi

Abhirup Roy

Reuters- A Dominican court has restrained local authorities from removing fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi from the country, throwing up another hurdle to India’s attempts to have him brought home and tried in the nation’s largest bank fraud case.

Choksi, who was born in India, was captured in Dominica earlier this week after going missing from the Caribbean nation of Antigua on Sunday, triggering a global manhunt. read more

He had been living in Antigua, where he had secured a passport, after fleeing India before the fraud came to light. He is one of the main defendants in the case.

After Choksi was detained, Antigua refused take him back and Prime Minister Gaston Browne told Reuters partner ANI that the country was in talks with the Dominican as well as Indian governments for his repatriation to India.

The court order blocking his repatriation came after Choksi filed a habeas corpus petition, which determines whether a detention is lawful, against Dominican authorities, Vijay Aggarwal, his lawyer in India, told Reuters.

The court has allowed Choksi access to legal assistance, Aggarwal said, adding that the case will be heard on Friday.

Indian federal police have filed fraud charges against Choksi, his nephew, Nirav Modi, and others in connection with their suspected involvement in fraudulent transactions that led to losses of about $2 billion for India’s Punjab National Bank (PNB) (PNBK.NS).

PNB alleged in 2018 that a few rogue employees had issued fake bank guarantees over several years to help jewellery groups controlled by Modi and Choksi to raise funds in foreign credit.

Both Modi and Choksi have denied any wrongdoing. Modi was arrested in London in 2019 and is fighting extradition to India. The Indian government has been pushing for Choksi’s extradition from Antigua and Barbuda.

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Illegal Building Threatens Ancient Mexican City

David Garcia

 

A stamp indicating the suspension of illegal construction is seen on the wall near the pre-Hispanic ruins of Teotihuacan in Oztoyahualco, in the State of Mexico, Mexico May 27, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

A construction site is seen near the pre-Hispanic ruins of Teotihuacan in Oztoyahualco, in the State of Mexico, Mexico May 27, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Reuters- Just beyond the towering pyramids of what was once the largest city of the Americas, an illegal building project threatens irreparable harm to the remains of temples and some two dozen other ancient structures in the path of the bulldozers.

The owner of the land, where construction is strictly prohibited, has ignored legal orders to stop building during the past two months from Mexico’s antiquities institute INAH, sparking outrage that authorities are failing to protect the sprawling ruins of Teotihuacan, one of Mexico’s top tourist draws.

Reuters was unable to locate or question the owner, whose name has not been disclosed.

Rogelio Rivero Chong, director of Teotihuacan’s archeological zone, said in an interview the police’s failure to intervene showed the property owner’s “total impunity.”

In late April, INAH filed a criminal complaint against the owner with federal prosecutors alleging “damage to archeological patrimony,” according to a statement from Mexico’s culture ministry this week.

The prosecutors’ office where the complaint was filed did not respond to Reuters’ query about the status of that complaint.

A tall cinder block wall surrounds the illegal construction, located on two plots in an area known as Oztoyahualco that is believed to be one of the ancient city’s oldest districts.

A past archeological survey indicates a ceremonial complex was there with at least three temples and some 25 separate structures.

Teotihuacan, about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Mexico City, once boasted a population of at least 100,000 people who mostly lived in stone multi-family apartment compounds, many of which were elaborately decorated with colorful murals.

The city grew rich from 100 B.C. to 550 A.D., thanks to extensive trade networks and a thriving craft-based economy that produced goods including ceramics, garments and especially razor-sharp obsidian blades.

Rivero Chong said authorities have for years struggled to stop illegal building, often carried out at night or on the weekends. Local government investigators often arrive too late to verify damage, he said.

Teotihuacan was declared a world heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1987, a designation that requires ongoing government protection of the site, noted Rivero Chong.

A number of leading scholars have also pleaded with the government to take action in recent days.

“For me, this really hurts,” said Linda Manzanilla, a veteran Teotihuacan archeologist with Mexico’s National Autonomous University, referring to the latest unlawful construction.

During one of her excavations at Teotihuacan in the 1980s, she unearthed a residential complex in Oztoyahualco where stucco workers once lived, next to a major obsidian workshop, not far from the three temples currently threatened.

She said the latest illegal construction is in an area just west of the Moon Pyramid, where other nearby excavations have revealed elaborately decorated structures built around plazas in a densely developed part of the ancient metropolis.

“It’s very likely that there are very large complexes there,” she said.

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Private Sector Central American Investment Arranged by US VP Harris

(CNN) Vice President Kamala Harris has announced commitments from 12 private companies and organizations to invest in the Northern Triangle, a White House official says, marking the latest administration attempt to address the root causes of migration from the region.

The agreement, dubbed a “Call To Action,” includes commitments from major companies like Microsoft, Mastercard, Chobani, Duolingo, Nespresso, Bancolombia and Davivienda.

Organizations like Accion, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Pro Mujer, the Tent Partnership for Refugees and the World Economic Forum have also signed onto the initiative.

The private sector investments will extend across El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Microsoft plans to expand internet access to as many as 3 million people in the region by July 2022 as well as develop community centers to help teach internet and digital skills to women and young people.

Yogurt company Chobani will take its incubator program to Guatemala to help local entrepreneurs set up their operations. Mastercard hopes to help 5 million people in the region obtain access to banking services and help bring 1 million micro and small businesses into a digital banking system.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the investment announcement.

The vice president will meet with leaders of these companies and organizations at the White House Thursday afternoon to discuss economic investments in the region. Harris has sought to leverage private sector influence part of the administration’s strategy for the Northern Triangle, particularly in aiding economic concerns in the region.

The announcement comes as Harris is set to travel to Guatemala and Mexico next month, her first foreign trip as vice president as she looks to work directly with governments in the Northern Triangle to tackle the migration issue.

In March, President Joe Biden tasked Harris with leading diplomatic efforts with the Northern Triangle to stem the flow of migration from the region, a politically fraught assignment that has made her the target of Republicans attempting to lay immigration and border issues at her feet.

Ahead of her trip to Mexico and Guatemala, Harris has met virtually with the leaders of those countries and sought input from experts and civil society leaders in the region.

“Our approach is to work with international institutions, to work with nations worldwide, the private sector and community organizations,” Harris said in a virtual meeting with Mexican President Manuel Lopez Obrador earlier this month.

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