Category Archives: headline

H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, awards four nationals in her 2021 New Year’s Honours List

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts — A press release from Government House, dated December 30, indicates that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Second has approved awards for four nationals for the Order of the British Empire in Her New Year’s Honours List 2021.

Athill Rawlins has been awarded Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his contribution to Public Service and Land Surveying, and Mrs. Venetta Laws was granted Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her contribution to Community Service and Business Entrepreneurship.

Additionally, for his contribution to Community Service, Collin Tyrell was bestowed with Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) while Commissioner Hilroy Patrick Brandy received Queen’s Police Medal (QPM) for his distinguished service to Policing.

Throughout history, monarchs have rewarded those who have shown service, loyalty or gallantry with gifts or titles.

Most honours are awarded on the advice of the Cabinet. However, anybody can make a recommendation if they know someone, they believe to be worthy.

It is a tradition that recipients collect their awards from The Queen or another Member of the Royal Family at an Investiture ceremony.

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Police investigating man’s body found on Phillips Mountain

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts — The Police received a report sometime after midday on December 29, that the body of a man was found on Phillips Mountain.

Upon arrival at a mountainous area in Phillips Village, the body of 60-year-old Charles Lowry, formerly of Phillips Village, was found lying on his back. The District Medical Officer visited the scene and pronounced him dead. Preliminary investigations so far have revealed that Lowry left home at about 7 a.m. Tuesday and went to the mountain as he normally would to set his trap.

An autopsy has been scheduled to determine the exact cause of death. Personnel from the Forensic Services Unit visited and processed the scene. Investigations into the matter are ongoing.

Persons with information regarding this incident are urged to contact the Tabernacle Police Station by dialing 465-7227 or their nearest Police Station.

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Nevis Premier Brantley offers prayers for Vincentians amid volcanic unrest

CHARLESTOWN, Nevis — Hon. Mark Brantley, Premier of Nevis is extending prayers for the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the face of ongoing volcanic unrest at La Soufrière volcano.

On December 30, Premier Brantley, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of St. Kitts and Nevis, issued a statement and called for prayer.

“My prayers are with our brothers and sisters of St. Vincent and the Grenadines as we all monitor the activity at La Soufrière volcano there,” said Hon. Brantley. “With the devastation already caused by COVID-19 and its disastrous impact on our small vulnerable states, our region cannot afford another disaster. I urge us all to pray for the continued safety and security of the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”

At a December 29 press conference, Hon. Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines told the citizenry that due to the effusive, oozing eruption taking place, the government had taken the alert level to orange for St. Vincent.

Dr. Gonsalves urged residents to remain calm but explained that those in the areas closest the growing satellite dome should be prepared to evacuate.

“At relatively short notice, you may get…an order to evacuate if in fact we have the scientific information that an explosive eruption will be occurring or at least the likelihood of it…

“I am urging all Vincentians to remain calm and to listen to the alerts from the National Emergency Management Organisation,” said Dr. Gonsalves. “All residents living close to the volcano are asked to make all necessary preparations to evacuate, just in case an order is given… Let’s hope for the best and we’re planning for if the worst takes place.”

Addressing the press conference virtually, Professor Richard Robertson of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (UWI SRC), in Trinidad said, “What is happening now is a serious thing. The volcano is erupting.”

He said that a monitoring team had picked up on increased activity at La Soufrière since mid-November. On December 27, a NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) satellite had detected a hotspot in the crater of the volcano.

A site visit by the La Soufrière Monitoring Unit in Kingstown, revealed an ongoing effusive eruption at Soufrière in which magna is coming slowly out of the earth and building another dome.

Dr. Robertson said that the UWI SRC will continue to monitor the rate at which the mass is increasing in size.

The UWI SRC was expected to dispatch three scientists to St. Vincent on December 30.

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Police investigating incident at Fisheries Complex

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts — At about 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday, December 29, the Police responded to the Fisheries Complex after a report was made by personnel at the facility that a man was next to a container calling for help.

Upon arrival the Officers found 67-year-old Thomas Rennix of East Street, Newtown semi-clad with his hands bound behind his back. He had what appeared to be lacerations to the head and face. He was transported to the JNF General Hospital, where he is warded in a critical, but stable condition. Investigations into the matter are ongoing.

Persons with information regarding this incident are urged to contact the Criminal Investigation Department by dialing 465-2241, their nearest Police Station or the Crime Hotline at 707 where information can be given anonymously.

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Nevis Athletics Stadium expansion on NIA’s 2021 agenda

CHARLESTOWN, Nevis –- The government remains committed to continuing the expansion of the Nevis Athletics Stadium to include a first-class football field, according to Hon. Eric Evelyn, Minister of Sports in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA).

During his presentation at the NIA’s 2021 Budget Debate in the Nevis Island Assembly on December 9, Hon. Evelyn highlighted some of the plans for the stadium at Long Point.

He said work will be continued at the Mondo Track to make it a first-class football ground.

Evelyn said prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NIA had been in discussions to host a regional football tournament at the stadium in 2020. He said that despite having to side-line those plans, the NIA continues with the improvements at the sporting facility in terms of making it a Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)-certified football field.

“When COVID is passed and gone we can renegotiate and have our regional and hopefully international football tournament being played right there at our first-class facility at the Mondo Track,” said Evelyn.

“Looking forward to 2021, the Ministry of Sports will continue to work with the sporting organizations on the island, especially with respect to capacity building and organizing sporting activities at the community level,” said Evelyn. “Sometimes some of our sporting organizations need help capacity-wise and we have been doing that over the years, we’re going to continue to do that.

“We’re going to continue to work with communities in terms of getting more sports out in the community,” he said. “We’re going to continue to work with the schools in terms of getting their sporting activities — football, cricket and athletics. We’re going to expand on the Swim to Win initiative.”

Evelyn emphasized the need to encourage the youths on Nevis to excel at sports. Against that back drop of enhancements to sporting facilities around the island.

“We have several sporting facilities around Nevis,” he explained. “When I came to this honourable House for the first time and made my presentation, I indicated we will do our best to ensure that we enhance our facilities across the island.

“We have been doing that incrementally. We cannot do all one time but we have been trying our best to do, and I can say …we’ve had enhancements and improvements to a lot of the sporting facilities across Nevis.

“This past year we’ve had enhancement and improvements at the hardcourts at Jessups, Cotton Ground, and Bath Village. We’ve had great improvement and enhancement at the St. George’s Recreation Ground, we call Ball Pasture,” said Evelyn.

The Ministry of Social Development, Culture, Youths and Sports has been allocated funding in the amount of $16.1 million, representing 6.7 percent of the NIA’s total budget for fiscal year 2021.

However, Hon. Evelyn noted that all plans, particularly sporting activities and capital projects, were contingent on the management of COVID-19 in the Federation, among other factors.

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Venezuela Signs Deal With Russia For 10 Million Doses Of Sputnik V Vaccine.

CARACAS, Venezuela– December 29th 2020–President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela announced that Russia will deliver the Sputnik V jab to 10 million people, saying he hopes to finish the first round of vaccinations in the first three months of 2021.

Announcing the deal in a televised speech on Tuesday, Maduro said the vaccine would be “distributed free of charge to the entire population living in the country, be they Columbians, Portuguese, Italians, Venezuelans,” while taking aim at Colombia’s plan to exclude 900,000 Venezuelan migrants from its own vaccination drive. His original tweet is shown in Spanish below.

 Colombia’s president, Ivan Duque, defended the move, saying that he was prioritizing Colombian citizens over other countries’ nationals, and drew accusations of xenophobia from the opposition as well as from Maduro.

The Venezuelan president said that the newly signed deal to procure 10 million Sputnik V doses was the result of “months of serious and responsible work,” extending gratitude to the Russian leadership for enabling the mass vaccination campaign in the country.

“I thank President Putin for this important step in the beginning of mass vaccination in Venezuela,” Maduro tweeted.

Venezuela became the first nation in the Western hemisphere to participate in the post-approval trial of the vaccine, when the first containers with Sputnik V arrived in October.

Maduro noted that the phase III trial has proven to be a success, saying that no adverse reactions from the vaccine have been observed in the country so far.

Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who participated in the signing of the contract, also hailed the vaccine as being “very safe” and vowed to set the inoculation campaign in motion “as soon as possible.”

“No criminal blockade will undermine the sacred right of our people to access the vaccine,” she tweeted, referring to the sweeping US sanctions.

While touting the vaccination as a milestone in the fight against Covid-19, Maduro cautioned against premature celebrations, urging the public to stay vigilant and follow hygiene rules.

“The vaccine will undoubtedly be an important response… but the main battle is to take care of ourselves, everything we have learned in the culture of biosecurity is here to stay,” he said.

The CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which sponsors the production of Sputnik V, Kirill Dmitriev, said on Tuesday he hopes to start shipping the inoculations without delay. He noted, however, that the delivery of 10 million doses to the Latin American nation might take half a year or even longer.

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St. Vincent Volcano May Be Ready To Blow Again.

ST. VINCENT–December 30th, 2020–Residents of St Vincent and the Grenadines were warned to stay away from La Soufriere volcano after increased seismic activity was detected in the dome over the weekend.

Volcanologists Dr Erouscille Pat Joseph and Professor Richard Robertson of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (SRC), joined Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves in a live address to the nation on Tuesday evening to provide an update on the activity.

“This is what we call an effusive eruption going on at Soufriere, which essentially means magma is coming slowly out of the earth and building a dome,” Robertson said.

It is similar to what occurred in 1971/72, after which the volcano went dormant. La Soufriere last had an explosive eruption in March 1979, and the ash rained on parts of Barbados.

Robertson said there was minor seismic activity in November and again on December 16 and 23, but on December 27 a NASA satellite detected a hot spot in the crater.

They contacted the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) and arranged for the Soufriere Monitoring Unit to visit the site on Tuesday. The magma is slowly building on the existing dome.

Robertson said sulphur-rich gases will be released into the atmosphere and warned residents to stay away from the area at this time.

He said there is not enough data to determine whether it will continue to slowly build or activity will increase to the point where there is an explosive eruption. In the meantime, they will continue to monitor the situation, and working in conjunction with NEMO, will put more equipment to collect data.

During the briefing, Gonsalves received correspondence from Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of National Security Stuart Young, giving clearance for Robertson and two others to leave the twin-island republic, where the SRC is located, to go to St Vincent. Gonsalves said once they had the COVID tests, an aircraft from the Barbados based Regional Security System would collect the team and equipment.

Robertson said he hoped there would be enough time to alert citizens in the danger zone so they can be evacuated ahead of a major event.  (SAT)

Soufrière Saint Vincent is an active volcano on the island of Saint Vincent in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean. Many volcanoes in the Caribbean are named Soufrière (French: “sulfur outlet”). These include Soufrière Hills on Montserrat and La Grande Soufrière on Guadeloupe, the subject of Werner Herzog’s 1977 film La Soufrière.

La Soufrière violently erupted in 1718, 1812, 1902, 1971, and 1979. The Saint Vincent eruption of 6 May 1902, just hours before the eruption of Mount Pelée on Martinique, killed 1,680 people. The death zone, where almost all persons were killed, was close to entirely Carib.

This last large remnant of Carib culture was destroyed, the island of Dominica’s Carib Territory being much smaller in comparison at that time.

The last recorded eruption was in April 1979; thanks to advance warning there were no casualties

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Hilarious! Actor’s American Wife ‘Reinvented’ Herself As Spaniard.

December 30th, 2020–Boston-born yoga instructor and wife of Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin, Hilaria, has been having a difficult time for of late, warding off accusations of faking a Spanish accent and heritage for years.

As the truth about her American childhood has come to light, her family rushed to her defense.

American actor Alec Baldwin has continued to fend off criticism targeting his 36-year-old wife Hilaria Baldwin, who has been accused of previously lying about her Spanish roots and place of birth.

Hilaria, whose stated American name turned out to be Hillary, is remembered by many for her “Today Show” and “Good Morning America” appearances, during which she spoke with a heavy Spanish accent.

No one doubted her roots and her “came to America at 19” story, until it was recently uncovered by social media users that not only were neither of her parents Spanish, but that the yoga instructor and podcast creator was born in Boston and not Mallorca as was earlier claimed on her CAA and IMDb pages.

The Boston-nativeposted a lengthy video on her Instagram page addressing the controversy, explaining that she had been balancing her life between Massachusetts and Spain before choosing to reside in the United States.

Both her husband and stepdaughter Ireland Baldwin rushed to Hilaria’s defense with social media blitzes, but some critics seemed to get on Alec Baldwin’s nerves.

The “Marrying Man” actor posted Mark Twain’s quote on his Instagram account on Tuesday, saying “a lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”.

His post was accompanied by revelations that neither of her parents were actually Spanish and neither was she. Baldwin, however, insisted that Hilaria loved the foreign country to the point that she had “reinvented herself as a Spanish woman”.

“She wanted to reinvent herself – so what? Isn’t America all about that?”, the actor asked his nearly two million followers, adding that there were many “ways to defend this – saying that facts are not facts is not one”.

And one social media user, who described himself as a “national champion powerlifter” in his bio, was ready to respond to the Hollywood star:

“Like your wife being Spanish when she lived in Massachusetts her entire life. I take it her accent is fake as well? FRAUDS”, the man said commented on the post.

Baldwin immediately attacked the critic with a “Go f**k yourself” message. He then added another jab, saying “You got a big mouth Roid Boy”.

But according to the actor’s Instagram feed, it looks like very few people were actually on his side.

“You guys keep giving the story life by being defensive. Admit the mistakes and move on”, one user commented.

“Fine to embrace Spanish culture just not ok to pretend you’re Spanish when you’re not. It’s really not that complicated. People are tired of lies”, another person added.

Alec Baldwin later shared another post on his Instagram, featuring a clip of soaring flock of birds.

“Flying away for a bit…”, the actor cryptically announced.

Users genuinely wondered if this meant he was heading to Spain.
While the “fake Spanish heritage” scandal continues to circulate in the news, the actor’s 23-year-old daughter Ireland Baldwin also had her time with critics.

Her message in her stepmother’s defense sending support to “any individual of the Latinx community has drawn some questions from social media users who were happy to educate the younger Baldwin on the issue, pointing out that the term refers to people with heritage from Latin America and not Spain, as was claimed by Hilaria.

Wellness expert and author Hilaria Hayward-Thomas married Alec Baldwin in 2012 and the two have five children together. During an April podcast she once again confirmed a widespread belief that she was a Spanish native, claiming that she had moved to the US at the age of 19 to study at NYU and maintaining that her whole family lived in Mallorca, Spain.

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Quarantine Scandals At Sandals Barbados Resort. Government Steps In.

This action was taken after several verified complaints of breaches of the COVID-19 protocols taking place at the resort with respect to visitors in quarantine.

Additionally, police have held for questioning at least three tourists in relation to alleged breaches of COVID-19 protocols related to quarantine.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness takes the issue of breaches of the COVID-19 protocols very seriously and will take similar action if other designated quarantine hotels and villas refuse to uphold the rules and regulations that have been put in place to protect workers in the hotel sector, and by extension the rest of the country.

Designated quarantine hotels are advised to take this opportunity to immediately review the standard operating procedures with respect to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in Barbados.

On Monday evening Minister of Health and Wellness Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic warned that authorities would take firm action against any businesses or individuals who breached protocols.

It is not clear whether this means effectively closing the resort to foreign tourists.

On its Web site Sandals Royal Barbados puffs itself as “the all-new, all-suite resort from the geniuses at Sandals Resorts set in the St. Lawrence Gap area” where “every suite features a private Tranquility Soaking Tub™”.

However, in a lengthy, scathing review of the resort dated December 26th in TripAdvisor a reviewer called A.M.W says:

“Upon arriving at Sandals, we were assured our room would have been rigorously cleaned for COVID and sealed – the seal on the room was broken, multiple aspects of the room clearly were not dealt with (e.g., the liquor bar had not been cleaned or restocked). In addition, housekeeping is frequently poor quality – they have forgotten to come to our room, forgot to provide towels and toilet paper, don’t restock waters, etc.”

“Another frustrating aspect has been the second COVID test. This test is mandatory, and you either pay a $60 fee for a cab ride into town to get the test at a local facility, or a $300 fee to do a test on the resort property.”

“We are assured that results will arrive within 24 hours so people can participate in offsite tours, use the gym, and other amenities, yet we find most people don’t receive their tests until 72 hours. In addition, if you arrive on a Friday or weekend (like we did), you have to wait until Monday to even schedule your test, meaning you won’t get your results until it’s time to leave the resort and can’t participate in many of the activities/amenities.”

But Sandals Resort has hit back and in a strongly worded, exclusive statement to Barbados TODAY, Sandals Resorts International vehemently refuted the allegations of repeated breaches and is accusing public health officials of heavy-handed action in the middle of dialogue between the hotel and the Ministry of Health, saying that they were given no warning of any violations or any chance to respond to the allegations or correct deficiencies.

The five-star property is also contesting an “implication” from authorities that three tourists currently in police custody regarding protocol breaches are even guests of the property.

 

 

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