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The Police in St Kitts and Nevis are investigating a non-fatal shooting incident that occurred over the weekend in which 43-year-old Kenrick Simmonds of Bird Rock was injured.

According to the Police sometime around 1:00 a.m. on November 13, 2021, Simmonds was leaving a bar in Buckley’s area when a lone gunman fired several shots at him. He received a gunshot wound to his arm, which also entered his chest. He was transported to the JNF General Hospital where he is currently warded in a stable condition.

Personnel from the Forensic Department processed the scene and collected items of evidential value.

Simmonds is the son of the First Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and only living National Hero Sir Kennedy Simmonds.

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The Ministry of Tourism wishes to advise the general public that Prince William Street in Charlestown will be closed to all vehicular traffic from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.

The closure will be to facilitate the arrival of the cruise vessel Seabourn Odyssey to Nevis and the effective dispatching of “Travel Approved” taxis.

 We apologise for any inconvenience this closure may cause. For further assistance contact the Ministry of Tourism at tel. no. 469-5521 ext. 6444.

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BEIJING/WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Chinese leader Xi Jinping greeted U.S. President Joe Biden as “old friend” at the start of their first video meeting, using an expression that Biden has pushed back on.

In China, the expression “lao peng you” connotes fondness and shows a level of familiarity and trust, and when said by Xi, 68, reflects a shared history that dates to August 2011, when the two held hours of conversations and travelled in Sichuan province – before either had reached the highest office.

Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, said Xi’s use of the expression is a show of genuine goodwill.

Daniel Russel, the top U.S. diplomat for Asia under former President Barack Obama, said it was part of each leader’s seeking the “narrative high ground” at the opening.

“Xi deliberately greeting Biden as ‘my old friend’ – after Biden went on record this summer expressly denying that they are ‘friends.’ And Biden, with a toothy smile, reminding Xi that all countries – including China – ‘have to play by the same rules of the road’,” Russel said.

Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, noted Xi’s use of the term despite the difficult state of relations.

“When we Chinese call someone an old friend, we mean we’ve known him for a long time. But an ‘old friend’ doesn’t necessarily mean he is still a real friend,” Shi said.

Given current diplomatic tensions, Biden may not want to be seen by U.S. allies and his political opponents as too much of a “friend”.

In June, a reporter asked Biden, 78, whether he might call Xi – “old friend to old friend” – seeking access for World Health Organization investigators searching for the origins of COVID-19.

“Let’s get something straight. We know each other well; we’re not old friends. It’s just pure business,” Biden said at the time.

Ahead of the meeting on Monday, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki was asked about that exchange.

“Well … I can confirm … he still does not consider him an ‘old friend,’ so that remains consistent,” she said.

Wide-Ranging Chat Aimed at Cooling Tensions

The United States and China disagree on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, trade and competition rules, Beijing’s expanding nuclear arsenal and its stepped-up pressure on Taiwan, among other issues.

Calling Biden an “old friend,” Xi said the two sides must increase communication and cooperation to solve the many challenges they face. Biden previously disputed the characterization of their relationship as an old friendship.

Speaking through an interpreter, Xi said: “As the world’s two largest economies and the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, China and the United States need to increase communication and cooperation.”

Biden promised to address areas of concern, including human rights and other issues in the Indo-Pacific region, adding that “you and I have never been that formal with one another.”

The talks, which were initiated by Biden and began at 7:46 p.m. on Monday (0046 GMT Tuesday), were intended to make the relationship less acrimonious.

The two sides took a 15-minute break after a nearly two-hour first session that ran half an hour longer than expected, according to reports from Chinese state media, before resuming the conversation.

The early moments of the two leaders’ dialogue were observed by a small group of reporters with Biden in the White House’s Roosevelt Room before the heads of state and top aides spoke privately. The U.S. president smiled broadly as the Chinese president appeared on a large screen in the conference room.

Biden and Xi have not had a face-to-face meeting since Biden became president and the last time they spoke it was via telephone in September.

U.S. officials have downplayed expectations for any concrete agreements between both sides, including on trade, where China is lagging in a commitment to buy $200 billion more in U.S. goods and services. Not on Biden’s agenda are U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods that Beijing and business groups hope to be scaled back.

The White House has declined to answer questions on whether the United States will send officials to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. Activists and U.S. lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to boycott the Games.

“Both sides are trying to establish the call’s goal as creating stability in the relationship, both through their collegial language and overall framing of the conversation and the importance of the relationship,” said Scott Kennedy, China expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The question is whether they’ll reach agreement on anything, or at least, agree to disagree and avoid escalatory steps.”

COMPETING VISIONS

Xi, looking ahead to the Olympics and a Communist Party congress next year where he is expected to secure an unprecedented third term, is also keen to avoid heightened tensions with the United States.

But he is expected to push back over Washington’s efforts to carve out more space for Taiwan in the international system. China claims the self-ruled island as its own. Beijing has vowed to bring the island under Chinese control, by force if necessary.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular briefing on Monday: “It is hoped that the United States and China will meet each other halfway, strengthen dialogue and cooperation, effectively manage differences, properly handle sensitive issues, and explore ways of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence.”

Xi and Biden last week outlined competing visions, with Biden stressing the U.S. commitment to a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” which Washington says faces increasing Chinese “coercion,” while Xi warned against a return to Cold War tensions.

A tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily on Monday called Taiwan “the ultimate red line of China.”

Taiwan is not the only flashpoint. Democrats in the U.S. Congress want Biden to make nuclear risk reduction measures with China a top priority, after the Pentagon reported that Beijing was significantly expanding its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Beijing argues its arsenal is dwarfed by those of the United States and Russia, and says it is ready for dialogue if Washington reduces its nuclear stockpile to China’s level.

“This is President Biden’s opportunity to show steel, show strength on America’s side, to make it clear that we are going to stand by our allies and that we will not endorse or condone the malign behavior that China has engaged in,” said Republican Senator Bill Hagerty, who served as ambassador to Japan under former President Donald Trump.

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West Indies and USA partnership is a vision for growth of the game

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Cricket West Indies (CWI) and USA Cricket have confirmed their partnership to host the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. The world governing body announced the joint bid was successful on Tuesday.

The strategic partnership and vision of CWI and USA Cricket for the 2024 T20 World Cup is geared towards growing the game in the Americas by re-energising the sport with a new generation of fans in the West Indies and unlocking cricket’s potential in the USA.

The partnership and bid planning, which started close to two years ago, aims to deliver ground-breaking fan and matchday experiences that combine Caribbean carnival with the best of American “sportainment” and breaking new ground on digital innovation and integration. The longer term goal is to accelerate cricket’s growth as the world’s Number 2 sport driving towards mainstream status in the United States and enhancing cricket’s prospect of inclusion in the Olympic Games, to be hosted in Los Angeles in 2028.

This will be the fourth occasion that the West Indies will be hosting a global ICC cricket event, and the first time for the United States. The 2024 ICC T20 World Cup will be the ninth edition and the first to feature 20 teams, competing in four groups. The third edition was hosted in the Caribbean in 2010.

Ricky Skerritt, CWI President and ICC Board member, said: “CWI welcomes this announcement by the ICC. It means simply that the Caribbean has been handed another opportunity, in 2024, to host a premier world cricket event. And this time it will be in partnership with our neighbours to the north, USA Cricket, led by my colleague Paraag Marathe. We know that our strategic partnership has helped ICC to accept our bid, and we must soon get to work to make this exciting ICC decision a truly successful one for all concerned.”

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BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, November 16, 2021 (MMS-SKN) — In what looked like an outside chance to get into the final four in the 26th edition of Constituency Number Seven Dr the Hon Timothy Harris Domino League, Sylvers Domino Club took less than an hour Monday evening November 15 to get in. In the process, they dislodged a former champion team Lodge Domino Club and a highly rated Phillips Domino Club.

At the end of the final segment in the single round of play of the Federation’s longest running domino league on Tuesday November 9, all teams had completed their schedule of play with the exception of the disputed Lodge/Sylvers game.

With 45 points and at position five, all Lodge needed was a simple win to put the team squarely in the final four by dislodging Phillips Domino Club who were ahead of them with 47 points. As for Sylvers, who were all the way down in position nine with 41 points, they needed to win maximum points that would place them on the same level with Phillips at 47 points.

When the rescheduled game opened on Monday at the new Lodge-Ottley’s Community Centre, Sylvers were leading 11-9 based on where the game had stopped. Lodge who had a full complement of players had the outside chance to overturn the results and get into the final four, but Sylvers who had only four of their players on duty could not entertain any of that.

 

Captain Octavia Huggins-Sewell and player Robert Charles of Sylvers sat on Table Two, and while the game was keenly contested by both the sides, Sylvers attainted 100 points first thus giving them a 12-9 lead.

On Table One, the Sylvers pair of Shaquille Sewell and Ken Barrette literally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat as Lodge players had opened with a 37-0 lead. They then moved on to 99-21, but the Sylvers pair galvanised their efforts and coming from behind ended up taking the game points 100-99, and the overall game at 13-9.

With that win by Sylvers, former champion team Unity Domino Club led by 59 points, followed by defending champion team Tabernacle Domino Club 48 points, Mansion Domino Club 48 points, with Sylvers Domino Club tying with Phillips Domino Club at 47 points each.

However, Sylvers was awarded the fourth position, and Phillips the fifth position based on better scoring average by Sylvers who had returned more games with six points.

Phillips Domino Club now leads best of the result with their 47 points, and are followed by Lodge Domino Club with 45 points. Others are Christ Church Domino Club, 45 points, Molineux Domino Club 44 points, former champion team Parsons Domino Club, 43 points, Saddlers Domino Club 37 points, Guinness Domino Club 27 points, Unstoppable Domino Club 23 points, Small Corner Bar Domino Club 20 points, and Ottley’s Domino Club 12 points.

Constituency Number Seven Dr the Hon Timothy Harris Domino League, which is the longest running such league in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, is sponsored by Prime Minister and Area Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher Seven (Bellevue to Ottley’s), Dr the Hon Timothy Harris.

The league’s Executive Committee, at a meeting which was chaired by President Calvin Farrell at the new Lodge-Ottley’s Community Centre on Monday November 15 and attended by Vice President Simeon Liburd, Treasurer Keithley Blanchette, PRO Allington Berridge, and Floor Member Marc Williams, released the schedule of play leading to the semis

In the top-four playoffs, former champion team Unity Domino Club will play against Sylvers Domino Club, and defending champion team Tabernacle Domino Club will play against Mansion Domino Club in the best of three games starting on Thursday November 18 at the new Lodge-Ottley’s Community Centre, all games starting at 7:00 p.m. The second game will be on Tuesday November 23, and if a third game will come into play, it will be held on Thursday November 25.

However, action returns to the new Lodge-Ottley’s Community Centre tomorrow Wednesday November 17, when Best of the Rest games will start. Phillips Domino Club which is the top seeded team will as result meet with bottom of the points standing table team, Ottley’s Domino Club. All other teams have been briefed as to the team they will be coming up against.

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While COVID- 19 cases continue to soar in this fourth wave with an average of 470 new infections daily, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses’ Association, Idi Stuart, says over 100 nurses have left their jobs in search of greener pastures abroad.

Stuart yesterday said although the Ministry of Health had increased the number of ICU beds from 50 to 100, there was a severe shortage of specialised nurses to manage these ICU beds.

“We are facing a mass shortage of nursing personnel. We already had a significant shortage of about 1,000 nurses, as stated in the last manpower audit done by the ministry. Now, since COVID, we have had additional facilities, the Couva Multi Training, Roxborough Hospital, Point Fortin Hospital, Arima Hospital and Sangre Grande which require staff,” Stuart said.

Painting a grim picture of the nursing crisis, Stuart said nurses stationed in the parallel healthcare institutions were inexperienced and unable to give quality patient care. The skilled nurses, he said, were leaving in droves.

“There are too many inexperienced nurses in the parallel healthcare system. You want experienced people in these facilities but there is nowhere for additional nurses to come. Cuban nurses were brought in to assist with ICU care but in most cases, ICU patients are being cared for by general nurses,” Stuart said.

He explained that most of the nurses currently working in the parallel healthcare system had graduated only last year and their first day on the job was at a COVID-19 facility.

Stuart said registered nurses and licensed midwives were in high demand internationally in the United States, England, Canada and the Bahamas.

A skilled registered nurse in T&T works for $7,500 but a basic nursing employment offer in England is over TT$22,000 with perks, Stuart said.

“The Government continues to hire an average of 100 nurses per year but we continue to lose our skilled nurses due to migration and through retirement. A number of nurses have also opted to do medicine or pharmacy because it makes more sense for them to do that financially,” he added.

He noted that the mandatory patient-staff ratio in T&T was not in accordance with international standards.

“Internationally, on medical wards it is one nurse to four patients but here we may have one nurse to twenty-something patients, that is normal in Trinidad,” Stuart said.

He explained that the only way to solve the dilemma was to reduce the number of admissions to the hospital by increasing vaccinations.

“Nursing personnel and the hospital management could manage a certain number of patients being admitted but currently, the number of people being admitted is unmanageable, untenable, unsustainable. As it stands, no one will end up getting quality care,” he noted.

He said his association has made recommendations to the Ministry of Health to retain nursing staff by paying overtime, allowing staff vacation time and increasing the salary of frontline COVID-19 nurses.

He noted that working in a COVID-facility is an added burden, as staff often spent up to 10 hours in hot zones wearing PPE, unable to breathe or urinate and exposing themselves to greater risk.

When asked about the nursing shortages yesterday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh also agreed with Stuart.

“What we need is more people being vaccinated,” Deyalsingh said.

The population of registered nurses and licensed midwives are about 6,000. However, there is an international demand for skilled medical workers globally.
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ANKARA, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Turkish authorities have arrested a man named  Samir Handal considered a suspect of “great interest” in the July assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, Haiti’s Foreign Minister Claude Joseph said late on Monday.

The 53-year-old former businessman Moise, who took office in 2017, was shot dead at his private residence and his wife was wounded in the attack. A group of Colombian mercenaries emerged as the main suspects though nobody has been charged or convicted in connection with the case.

“I just had a phone conversation with the Turkish Minister, my friend Mevlut Cavusoglu, to thank Turkey for the arrest of Samir Handal, one of the persons of great interest in the investigation into the assassination of the president,” Joseph said on Twitter.

Turkish media reported on Tuesday that Handal, who was being sought with an Interpol Red Notice, was detained at the Istanbul Airport by authorities as he was flying transit from the United States to Jordan.

Turkey’s Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

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