In a lopsided Group F contest at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium in Nassau, St Kitts whipped hosts the Bahamas 4-0 with the 27-year-old Freeman netting on either side of half-time.
Keithroy Freeman’s brace handed St. Kitts and Nevis its second straight win while former Charleston Battery forward, Quinton Griffith, also netted twice to keep Antigua and Barbuda unbeaten in the opening round of 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers on Saturday.
He opened the scoring in the 25th minute to give St Kitts a 1-0 half-time lead and added to his tally in the 65th, in between a 53rd-minute penalty from Kimaree Rogers and an 82nd-minute strike from United Kingdom-based Omari Sterling-James, who entered the game as a 77th-minute substitute.
The victory was the second on the trot for St Kitts who edged Puerto Rico 1-0 in their opening game in the Dominican Republic four days ago.
Griffith, meanwhile, who spent several seasons with Battery in the United Soccer League, grabbed some of the spotlight as Antigua scored three first-half goals to brush aside US Virgin Islands in St Thomas.
Veteran 36-year-old striker Peter Byers gave the visitors the lead in the 26th minute before the 29-year-old Griffith struck in the 34th and 42nd minutes to dominate the Group A match.
Antigua was held to a 2-2 draw in their opener against Montserrat in Willemstad.
The other four fixtures on Saturday saw teams suffer heavy defeats.
At the neutral IMG Academy venue in Florida, Israel-based forward Nigel Hasselbaink smashed a hat-trick to inspire Suriname to a 6-0 crushing of Aruba in Group B.
The 30-year-old scored his first in the 37th minute to put the Dutch side up 3-0 before adding a brace in the second half.
In Group D at the Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Dorny Romero and Nowend Lorenzo both scored in either half to register doubles, and fire the Dominican Republic to a 6-0 thrashing of hapless Anguilla.
And in Group E at the Estadio Panamericano in San Cristobal – another neutral venue – Turks and Caicos Islands suffered a chastening 7-0 defeat at the hands of a rampant Nicaragua, who were inspired by two goals each from Juan Barrera and Ariagner Smith.
At the Ergilio Hato in Willemstad, British Virgin Islands conceded twice in the first half of their Group C contest to go down 3-0 to Central American side Guatemala.
Experts had warned that the true number of Covid-related deaths in Mexico was higher than the official figures
BBC- Mexico has published revised figures indicating that the number of deaths caused by coronavirus is 60% higher than previously reported. More than 321,000 people are now believed to have died from Covid-19 in the country.
The revised toll places Mexico with the second-highest number of Covid-related deaths in the world, after the US.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has faced widespread criticism over his handling of the crisis.
The opposition has accused him of downplaying the severity of the pandemic and blamed him for delays in the vaccination program.
Since mid-February, more than 26,772 Covid-19-related deaths have been reported across Mexico which would take the total to more than 321,000.
That places Mexico above Brazil, which has registered 310,000 deaths, and below the US which has recorded 549,000 fatalities – despite having a population of 126 million which is far smaller than either country.
image copyrightEPA
The government has been criticised for the slow rollout of vaccines
Experts have long warned that Mexico’s true death toll is probably much higher due to a lack of testing. It is also believed that a shortage of intensive care beds in many states has led to a large number of people dying at home.
The new figures came after a review of “excess deaths” and a review of death certificates.
Last week, Hugo López-Gatell, who is heading Mexico’s response to the pandemic, warned that the country risked a new wave of infections as millions prepared for the Easter holidays.
Mr López Obrador, who has himself recovered from Covid-19, has been repeatedly accused by his opponents of not taking the crisis seriously enough and is often seen in public without wearing a face mask.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s vaccination program has seen about 6.1 million doses administered so far.
The US recently announced it would release four million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and Canada.
Both countries have approved the AstraZeneca inoculation, but the US has not. However, the US has a stockpile of the jab.
The White House said that 2.5m of the US’s 7m jabs would go to Mexico and 1.5m to Canada.
Leaders from both countries had asked the White House for assistance. Mexican officials even pressed the Biden team on the issue during a conversation about border security earlier this month.
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, March 27, 2021 (PLP PR Media Inc.) — The youngest and fastest growing political party on the region, the Peoples Labour Party (PLP), held the private session of its National Convention 2021 on Friday March 26 where the entire executive, led by National Political Leader and Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, was elected unopposed.
Held under the theme ‘Together: Empowering and Uniting People; Rebuilding our Economy’, the private session which was held at the Royal St. Kitts Hotel Conference Room saw most of the office holders returned unopposed. Aspirants for positions left vacant by holders – one who left the country and the other who is going for further studies – were nominated and elected unopposed in the exercise that was overseen by Mr Franklin Maitland of the audit firm Maitland Maitland & Associates (MMA).
Retaining positions on the new Peoples Labour Party National Executive were National Political Leader, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris; Deputy National Political Leader, the Hon Akilah Byron-Nisbett; National Chairman, Mr Warren Thompson; and National Secretary, Ms Myrtilla Williams.
New on the executive is National Treasurer Mr Rawle Mars, nominated and elected unopposed to replace Mr Victor Earle who is now one of the three PLP National Trustees, joining Mr Heston Hamm and Mr Donald Caines who have been National Trustees all along.
Also returned are National Women Representatives, Mrs Sonia Henry and Ms Petrona Thomas; and National Party Organiser, Mr Alexis Nisbett. New Deputy National Chairperson is Ms Claudette Thompson, who is not new on the Executive having served as the Deputy National Treasurer on the previous Executive.
New on the PLP National Executive are Deputy National Secretary, Ms Desiree Huggins; Deputy National Treasurer, Mrs Patrice Ofre; National Youth Representatives, Mr Jeremiah Locker and Ms Katherina Davis.
A new position created on the new Executive is that of Communication Officer that went to Mr Craig Tuckett, who is not new to the Executive having served as the Deputy National Chairman on the last Executive. While Mr Anthony Ross QC has previously been associated with the Peoples Labour Party in a legal capacity, he along with Ms Violet Williams took the two National Legal Representative positions.
“This is now our complete team,” announced National Political Leader Dr the Hon Timothy Harris when he introduced the new Executive. “We are here to serve you, to serve the party, the serve the Unity family, and most importantly to serve St. Kitts and Nevis to the best of our ability.”
Dr Harris added: “For completeness I should advise that by the party rules, the Deputy National Speaker Senator Dr Bernicia Nisbett is also automatically, as a result of her parliamentary position, a member of the executive having been appointed as the PLP Senator in the parliament.”
The Peoples Labour Party which was established in 2013 is steadily growing. It won the first seat in the National Assembly in 2015, and the second seat following the 2020 General Elections.
The Honourable National Political Leader while thanking those who have worked hard to bring the party to where it is now, advised that there was room in the PLP for everybody to come, telling the members that “your approach must be welcoming, and every time if somebody new comes welcome them to the party so that we could be bigger and stronger.”
Dr Harris added: “As we convene this convention we have party groups in every constituency – that is a plus. We now have to build it stronger and better because we do not know what the future holds. We can’t take our eyes off the future, we can’t take our eyes off the consolidation of the future; we can’t take our eyes away from building the party stronger and better than it was.”
Due to Covid-19 regulations being observed, the business/private session of the National Convention which would normally hold over 300 persons had the attendance reduced by about 60%. Each constituency branch as a result had 12 delegates as opposed to 35 delegates for previous conventions.
“We have to behave in a manner that shows that we are serious and we are supportive of the government’s programme to defeat Covid-19,” said Dr Harris. “That is why I must express the regret, my own personal regret and that of the executive that the large amount of crowd we normally have at our convention we would not encourage in the face of Covid-19.”
Prime Minister Harris informed the delegates that Covid rules state that for indoor events a function must have no more than 100 persons.
“We have to walk the talk,” he said. “As a party in Government we have said that to fight Covid-19 we must avoid mass gatherings and we as a party in government are committed to that and that is why we have reduced significantly by more than 60 per cent the attendance at our convention which would normally have around 300.”
Peoples Labour Party (PLP) National Political Leader and Prime Minister, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, addressing the private session of the PLP National Convention 2021.
The government has imposed tougher restrictions, including the closure of schools, churches and gyms — for two weeks after dozens of more new COVID-19 cases pushed Bermuda’s total beyond the 1000 mark.
According to Premier David Burt “We are in a dangerous place.”
He made the comment late Saturday following reports of 81 new confirmed cases, among 1,339 test results. This follows reports 33 cases a day earlier, bringing the total over the past 12 months to 1,028 – of these, 294 are active cases with one patient in the hospital.
To date, 12 people have died from the virus.
Around 20 per cent of Bermuda’s 64,000 population have so far received both jabs from supplies of Pfizer vaccine sent free to the island, a British Overseas Territory, by the government in London.
Health Minister Kim Wilson said Bermuda was experiencing a third wave which was likely to be bigger than the second wave as it involves the UK variant, which is more transmissible.
“This is a significant outbreak,” she said on Saturday night. “We have never experienced community spread. We have a very, very serious problem.”
Between 80 and 90 per cent of the new cases are due to the UK variant and the mean age of those affected is 33.
Wilson said: “It is now more critical than ever to take responsibility for our own behaviour and act in an abundance of caution.
“All of this is preventable and some people are selfishly ignoring the rules.”
Wilson said the contact tracing workload had intensified significantly with the latest surge in cases.
“Because of the high level of transmission in respect to this particular virus, they are coming to be overwhelmed,” she said.
According to the Premier, Bermuda will recover from the setback, but a renewed effort to mitigate the risks caused by the surge in cases was needed.
The series of new restrictions came into effect as of 6 a.m (local time) on Sunday.
“The stricter measures that will be adopted are designed not only to protect but preserve the basic progress we all made over this last year,” Burt said.
“This UK strain is a variant that has caused many other countries to suffer or slow down in the fight against the coronavirus.
“Our island is at a serious juncture. Our public health system is being significantly challenged. The teams are struggling to keep up with contact tracing, struggling to keep up with the work that is necessary in order to control this outbreak.”
Burt said churches will be closed for indoor services, indoor restaurant dining will be prohibited, apart from in hotels, indoor gyms and indoor cinemas will be closed, as will venues such as museums and bowling alleys.
In addition, retail and grocery stores will be limited to 20 per cent capacity, schools and camps will be closed and remote working will be mandatory where possible. But licensed daycares will be allowed to remain open.
Discussions already taking place with cruise lines
Jamaica has thrown its hat in the ring to become the next Caribbean cruise ship home port when cruise shipping begins in the region come June.
This was confirmed by Jamaica’s Director of Tourism Donovan White.
The move by Jamaica comes less than a week after The Bahamas was announced as the cruise home port for Crystal Cruises and Royal Caribbean and St Maarten for Celebrity Cruises.
On Tuesday last, it was disclosed that Vision of the Seas would begin cruises out of Bermuda while the British Virgin Islands announced that it would be opening a cruise port of call.
Jamaica is now trying to get into the action, which has come about as a result of the United States cruise shipping home ports still being put on hold, as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
This has resulted in cruise lines trying to find new alternatives to home-porting such as those in the Caribbean. Jamaica is now looking to be a cruise home port after it reopens its borders to international tourism on June 15. White pointed out that Jamaica’s tourism officials have set in motion plans for the island becoming a cruise home port.
CRUISE SHIP HOME-PORTING PART OF OVERALL TOURISM RECOVERY PLAN
This is part of a larger plan for Jamaica’s tourism recovery plan as the arrival of cruise ships would boost tourism numbers to the island considerably.
Speaking during a recent virtual travel trade briefing, Jamaica’s tourism director spelt out the process of how the cruise ships could home port in the island and how cruises from Jamaica would operate. He explained that cruise passengers would be taken from the airport to the cruise port to board the ship.
He further posited that the . White confirmed that discussions are already going on between the cruise lines and the Government with plans and policies already made to have cruise ship home-porting, if a deal is reached with the cruise lines.
MORE TO SAY IN THE COMING WEEKS
According to the tourism director, “We will have more to say in the coming weeks, but you can be assured that conversations are indeed happening and the necessary policy and strategic frameworks that are required to make this a reality are, in fact, in place and are being reshaped where necessary.” The fact that more than 36 per cent of all cruise movements are made in the Caribbean with most cruise passengers coming from the United States and Canada makes it a win-win situation for Jamaica.
America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has held up cruise ship operations in US waters since March 2020, although it has laid out guidelines for cruises to resume with conditional sailing certificates. Cruise operators have been struggling to make it through what has become a year-long suspension.
Like the other islands, Jamaica has traditionally depended on the cruise industry to be a part of tourism income. The cruise lines and the Caribbean islands are therefore able to lend each other a hand in making their ports available for home-porting while the American home ports remain under lockdown.
CRUISES ARE NOW IN GREAT DEMAND
Cruises are in huge demand and people are ready to head back out and enjoy a vacation at sea, as Crystal announced record single-day bookings for when Crystal Serenity sails in The Bahamas from July. The cruise line reports that almost 4,000 travellers reserved staterooms or suites on at least one of the seven-night voyages out of Nassau or Bimini in The Bahamas.
Almost 200 guests have reportedly reserved back-to-back cruises with some planning to spend 42 days onboard. The numbers are impressive with a 2,024 per cent increase in online books. Celebrity Cruises CEO Lisa Lutoff-Perlo says returning to the Caribbean “marks the measured beginning of the end of what has been a uniquely challenging time for everyone.”
Prior the Crystal Serenity cruise, Royal Caribbean will set sail again on its ship, Adventure of the Seas for seven-night cruises starting in June onboard two of its vessels, Celebrity Millennium and Adventure of the Seas. The Celebrity Millennium will relaunch on June 5 from St Maarten.
One itinerary will stop in Aruba, Curacao and Barbados and another will stop in Tortola, St Lucia and Barbados. Among the precautions the cruise line is taking to reduce the chance of COVID-19 transmission is the fact that all its crews will be fully vaccinated, only adult travellers who have been vaccinated will be permitted on board and guests under 18 will have to have negative test results.
There was an air of optimism and relief among the first frontline medical staff in Cuba to receive the island’s experimental vaccine, Soberana 2 – meaning Sovereignty 2.
The vaccine candidate, which is still officially in phase 3 trials, represents Cuba’s best hope of lifting the lockdown on the capital Havana and beginning to claw back some of the lost economy, especially in the tourism sector.
Even though Soberana is yet to be fully certified as an official vaccine, the authorities are so confident in its effectiveness the process of giving it to 150,000 Cuban doctors, nurses and healthcare workers is now fully under way.
Cuba has a strong record in vaccine development having produced its own meningitis B vaccine in the late 1980s. The numbers of infections and deaths from Covid-19 are much lower in Cuba than elsewhere in the world but the lockdown has caused serious economic hardship.
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
Thousands of Cuban health workers will be given the Soberana 2 vaccineImage caption: Thousands of Cuban health workers will be given the Soberana 2 vaccine
The government’s intention is to vaccinate the population of Havana before the end of May.
However, the communist-run government has come under some criticism for not ordering doses of some of the other coronavirus vaccines available, perhaps from Russia or China, to begin the protection of medical staff while the Soberana vaccine is in development.
Nevertheless, there is interest elsewhere in Latin America in the Cuban-developed vaccine candidates – which include at least two others beyond Soberana – especially from Venezuela, Mexico and Jamaica.
Customs officials in Ecuador discovered 185 baby tortoises packed inside a suitcase that was being sent from the Galápagos Islands to the mainland on Sunday.
The reptiles had been wrapped in plastic and were found during a routine inspection at the main airport on the island of Baltra.
Ten of them had died, officials said.
One of the biggest threats to Galápagos tortoises is illegal trading for animal collectors and exotic pet markets.
The tortoises seized at the airport on Baltra are thought to be less than three months old.
Officials combatting wildlife trafficking say hatchling-sized juveniles can fetch sums of more than $5,000 (£3,600) per animal.
It is believed the smugglers wrapped the tortoises in plastic to immobilise them but the X-ray machine’s operator at the airport nevertheless grew suspicious.
image copyrightAeropuerto Ecológico de Galápagos
image captionAn X-ray machine operator grew suspicious and the suitcase was searched
image copyrightAeropuerto Ecológico de Galápagos
image captionStaff from the Galápagos National Park are helping with the care of the seized tortoises
The suitcase had been posted at the airport by a transport firm and was said to contain “souvenirs”, a statement from the airport said.
No arrests have been made so far but employees of the transport firm who had checked in the suitcase were held for questioning, according to the statement.
Ecuador’s environment minister, Marcelo Mata, described the incident as a crime against the country’s wild fauna and natural heritage.
Many plants and animals found on the Galápagos are unique to the islands, which lie in the Pacific Ocean about 1,000km (600 miles) off the coast of Ecuador.
Among the most famous are the Galápagos giant tortoises, which are thought to have arrived on the volcanic islands between three and four million years ago.
The sentence for smuggling animals from the Galápagos is one to three years in prison.
The Associated Press is reporting exclusively on a draft copy of a World Health Organization study on the origins of COVID-19 that says transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario.
We set the scene as a former Minneapolis police officer goes on trial in George Floyd’s death. And in Egypt there is progress in attempts to budge the colossal container ship blocking the Suez Canal.
Also:
Thousands flee into Thailand following Myanmar air strikes.
Swiss banker’s journey from serving Venezuelan kleptocrats to star witness against them.
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Authorities in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro begged the population to stay home, but thousands of Brazilians are traveling to coastal cities and ignoring recommendations on the first weekend of a 10-day holiday period decreed to contain the increase in COVID-19 infections in the country.
Some residents are clearing out and taking advantage of the holidays, despite warnings from authorities. Brazil’s two biggest cities, Rio and Sao Paulo, have imposed extensive restrictions on nonessential activities. Their state authorities brought forward holidays to create a 10-day break period, which started Friday.
Many scenes in Brazilian cities show the difficulty that authorities are facing in enlisting the cooperation of the population to contain the spread of the virus.
In Sao Sebastiao, a city of more than 80,000 inhabitants on the Sao Paulo coast, tourists destroyed barriers installed at the access to beaches to avoid crowds, according to local reports. The city is one of those that suffered an invasion of tourists who took advantage of the holidays decreed by the state government.
“Don’t come to the coast. We depend on tourism, but right now we depend on health. We need to avoid an even bigger collapse,” said the city’s mayor, Felipe Augusto, angered by the acts of vandalism.
In Ubatuba, another of the main cities on the Sao Paulo coast, residents burned tires on a road to try to prevent an influx of visitors.
Restrictions on activity implemented last year were half-hearted and sabotaged by President Jair Bolsonaro, who sought to stave off economic doom. He remains unconvinced of any need for clampdown, fearful that the damage to the economy could generate more unemployment and social chaos.
Brazil currently accounts for one-quarter of the entire world’s daily COVID-19 deaths, far more than any other single nation, and health experts are warning that the nation is on the verge of even greater calamity. The nation’s seven-day average of 2,500 deaths stands to reach to 3,000 within weeks, experts told the Associated Press.
The health system is already buckling, with almost all states’ intensive care units near or at capacity. On Sunday 92.6% of ICU beds were occupied in Sao Paulo, while Rio state had an occupancy of 92%.
Rio city authorities closed 19 stores and fined 60 bars, restaurants and street vendors on Saturday for breaking rules that prohibited their operation, the mayor’s press office confirmed to The Associated Press. On the city beaches, some people ignored the new rules and stayed on the sand.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Small-particle pollution spiked in Mexico City to almost six times acceptable limits Sunday, a level not seen for years in the Mexican capital.
Levels of small particles, known as PM10, reached 581 points in the city’s Iztapalapa borough, on a scale where 100 is considered the highest acceptable level.
No formal pollution alert was declared, but the levels were enough to earn a rare “extremely bad” rating from the city’s air-quality monitoring network.
Alerts, which can force some vehicles to stay off the road, are normally declared when pollution reaches between 1.5 and 2 times acceptable limits.
PM10 particles are often from dust or soil kicked into the air, and the network warned that high winds were likely to cause an increase in particle levels.
Ozone and extremely small particles, known as PM2.5, are often triggered by vehicle emissions and are traditionally more of a problem in Mexico City. But they did not appear to play as much of a role in Sunday’s pollution spike.
Spring is dry season in central Mexico and it is also a time when farmers on Mexico City’s outskirts traditionally burn grass and weeds to prepare fields for planting.
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