NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS — Condé Nast Traveler announced the results of its 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards on October 05, 2021, with Nevis recognised as the no. 2 Top Island in all of the Caribbean and the Atlantic.

Two resorts in the destination were also ranked among the Top 40 Resorts in the Caribbean Islands. The luxurious Four Seasons Resort Nevis ranked no. 13, and the elegant boutique hotel, Montpelier Plantation & Beach ranked no. 32.

Responding to the high recognition for the destination by readers of the prominent international tourism magazine, Ms. Jadine Yarde, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Nevis Tourism Authority (NTA) expressed gratitude.

“This has been a difficult time for tourism worldwide for obvious reasons. Receiving the Readers’ Choice Award is especially meaningful now, as we’ve used the last 18 months to further enhance the island’s tourism offerings in anticipation of the return of international travellers to this piece of paradise, we call home.

“We thank the readers of Condé Nast Traveler for sharing their travel experiences and placing Nevis amongst the very best,” she said.

According to a press release from the NTA, The Readers’ Choice Awards are the longest-running and most respected recognition of excellence within the travel industry.

This year, more than 800,000 readers rated their travel experiences across the globe, clearly identifying those destinations they love most and can’t wait to return to.

The complete list of 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards can be found on Condé Nast Traveler’s website, cntraveller.com/gallery/readers-choice-winners-2021, and in the November issue available on newsstands.

The recognition comes after the recent launch of the new destination website. The newly revamped website is lively, dynamic and practical, offering a modernised design and easy navigation, sure to inspire travel to Nevis.

To encourage consumers to explore the new website, the Nevis Tourism Authority is giving away a Nevis vacation for one lucky traveller via its Mango Mania competition. Visitors can enter the giveaway at https://nevisisland.com/.

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TANACROSS, Alaska (AP) — One Alaska Native village knew what to do to keep out COVID-19. They put up a gate on the only road into town and guarded it round the clock. It was the same idea used a century ago in some isolated Indigenous villages to protect people from outsiders during another deadly pandemic — the Spanish flu.

It largely worked. Only one person died of COVID-19 and 20 people got sick in Tanacross, an Athabascan village of 140 whose rustic wood cabins and other homes are nestled between the Alaska Highway and Tanana River.

But the battle against the coronavirus isn’t over. The highly contagious delta variant is spreading across Alaska, driving one of the nation’s sharpest upticks in infections and posing risks for remote outposts like Tanacross where the closest hospital is hours away.

The COVID-19 surge is worsened by Alaska’s limited health care system that largely relies on hospitals in Anchorage, the biggest city. It’s where the state’s largest hospital, Providence Alaska Medical Center, is overwhelmed with patients and was the first weeks ago to declare crisis-of-care protocols, meaning doctors are sometimes prioritizing care based on who has the best odds of survival.

Since then, 19 other health care facilities in Alaska, including Anchorage’s two other hospitals and Fairbanks Memorial, have also entered crisis care mode, something overtaxed facilities in other states have had to do, including Idaho and Wyoming.

“Even though we live here, we’re concerned about Anchorage and Fairbanks,” said Alfred Jonathan, a Tanacross elder. “If somebody gets sick around there, there’s no place to take them.”

While Alaska has contracted with nearly 500 medical professionals to help over the next few months, the ramifications are dire for those in rural Alaska if they need higher levels of care — for COVID-19 or otherwise — but no beds are available.

Sometimes those patients get lucky and get transferred to Fairbanks or Anchorage. Other times, health care staff are on the phones — in some cases, for hours — looking for a bed or facility that can provide specialty treatments like dialysis.

One patient who couldn’t get dialysis at Providence died, hospital spokesperson Mikal Canfield said. Dr. Kristen Solana Walkinshaw, the hospital’s chief of staff, said she knew a patient in an outlying community who needed cardiac catheterization and died waiting.

Options in Seattle and Portland, Oregon, also are being overloaded. One rural clinic finally found a spot for a patient from interior Alaska in Colorado.

Health officials blame the hospital crunch on limited staffing, rising COVID-19 infections and low vaccination rates in Alaska, where 61% of eligible residents in the conservative state are fully vaccinated. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, one in every 84 people in Alaska was diagnosed with COVID-19 from Sept. 22 to Sept. 29, the nation’s worst diagnosis rate in recent days.

Officials say medical workers are exhausted and frustrated with what feels like a no-win effort to combat misinformation about COVID-19 being overblown and vaccines being unsafe. Some say it could have long-term effects — further shaking confidence in vaccines and treatments for other illnesses and making the longstanding pre-pandemic challenge of recruiting health care workers to the remote state more difficult.

Medical workers “describe the emotions of: ‘You hear a code is happening, someone is passing away,’” said Jared Kosin, president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association. “That is devastating. You never want to lose a patient. But in the back of your mind, you’re thinking, ‘OK, another bed is now available that is critically needed.’ And how do you balance those emotions? It’s gut-wrenching.”

In Tanacross, elders are encouraging people to get vaccinated, especially with facilities strained. The village is in a sprawling, sparsely populated region of eastern Alaska where the vaccination rate is under 50%.

Jonathan, 78, tells villagers that COVID-19 is here, and like the delta variant, is going to develop in other ways.

Those who “didn’t get vaccinated? Gosh, we’re afraid for them,” said Jonathan, who recently led a crew clearing dead and dying trees to reduce wildfire fuel and provide wood to heat homes.

His wife, Mildred, helped guard the gate into the community this year. Those restrictions ended this summer as the pandemic seemed to be improving. Now, she says she’s tired of outsiders calling their friends in Tanacross to scare them, claiming there are problems with the vaccines.

“I got both my shots, I’m alive and nothing’s wrong with me,” she said before piling bags of sanitizer, masks and nitrile gloves into her Prius to deliver throughout town.

Alaska, hailed early in the pandemic for working with tribal health organizations to distribute vaccines widely and quickly, was 25th in the U.S. for the percentage of its total population inoculated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

At hospitals, care “has shifted,” said Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer.

“The same standard of care that was previously there is no longer able to be given on a regular basis,” she said. “This has been happening for weeks.”

In rural Alaska, six Indigenous villages, including Tanacross, rely on the new Upper Tanana Health Center in the hub community of Tok, about a two-hour drive from the Canadian border. The staff treats who they can and moves those with more serious needs to Anchorage or Fairbanks, said Jacoline Bergstrom, executive director of health services for the Tanana Chiefs Conference, a consortium of 42 Athabascan villages spread over an area of interior Alaska nearly the size of Texas.

Emergency plans are in place to house people overnight if hospital beds aren’t available right away, clinic director Joni Young said. They’re usually flown because it’s a three-hour drive from Tok to Fairbanks and about seven to Anchorage.

“If for some reason, we can’t medevac out, we’ve been preparing since the beginning to help our patients if we need to,” Young said. “We’ve got cots before, stored here, and we have another building that we lease that we could use to separate COVID patients.”

The staff is putting in overtime, with nurses taking COVID-19 questions from callers and working weekends. They need to hire two urgent care registered nurses, but few have applied.

Joyce Johnson-Albert lay on a bed at the health center with an IV in her arm. She was vaccinated but got a breakthrough infection, she suspects from a hunting camp.

“I just hope the next few days, I’ll be getting a little better than now,” Johnson-Albert said as she received a monoclonal antibody infusion, given at the onset of COVID-19 to lessen symptoms. “It’s just hard to say. You can go either way.”

Registered nurse Angie Cleary is grateful the clinic offers the infusion treatment.

“However, I feel worried some days where we’re not sure when we’ll get more,” Cleary said. “For example, we’re down to, I think, five doses right now, and we could get more tomorrow or it might not be until next week. That’s one of the concerns we have living out here, is like, when are we going to get our next shipment?”

They’re also battling misinformation about the pandemic.

Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has faced criticism for not mandating masks and not endorsing vaccines as fully as some would like. He has encouraged people to get shots but said it is a personal choice. Others have accused him of pushing vaccines and peddling fear.

Providence hospital employees are having a hard time with the harsh rhetoric, Solana Walkinshaw said. One staffer got spit at leaving work, the chief of staff said.

“We still have people who are COVID-denying as they’re being intubated, or family members who are COVID-denying as they’re saying on an iPad, saying goodbye to their loved one,” she said.

Daisy Northway of the Tok Native Association knows how hard it is to advocate for vaccinations, saying she’s “talked till I’m blue in the face” trying to convince one of her sons.

The Athabascan elder said she urges people to get the shots but in a way that lowers the political fervor.

“We need to say, ‘Get vaccinated’ in such a manner that it’s helpful and not being criticizing for their beliefs,” she said.

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Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 07, 2021 (RSCNPF): On October 07, 2021, the Police charged a 16-year-old male for the murder of Kishaun Ritchen of Newtown. The offence was committed on September 23, 2021. He is currently in Police custody and is expected to appear before the Child Justice Committee shortly. 

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NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (October 07, 2021) — The following is an address by Hon. Hazel Brandy-Williams, Junior Minister of Health in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) on the occasion of Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2021.

Since 1985 the Month of October is being observed as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and each year at this time we make a special effort to highlight the devastating impact Breast Cancer has on millions of women throughout the globe.

During this month all efforts are being made to raise awareness about Breast Cancer, the inherent risks, and early signs and symptoms of breast health.

In 2020 2.30 million women were diagnosed with Breast Cancer and approximately 685,000 deaths. This cancer is the most common cancer in women and the second leading cause of deaths in women.

Here in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis the incidence of Breast Cancer continues to increase, and younger and younger women are becoming affected. Data shows that in 2019 there were 25 new cases of

Breast Cancer and 16 new cases recorded in 2020 ranging from age 30 to 90 years old.

Studies have shown that Breast Cancer can be detected early and treated effectively. It has also shown that breast self-examination and mammograms have led to early diagnosis and effective treatment, and it is also evident that early interventions have led to a reduction in premature deaths associated with breast cancer.

The Ministry over the years has supported women by helping them to access education, screening and the support they need.

The Ministry of Health and Gender Affairs encourages you to join with us as we RISE together to help women in need. Help us to raise awareness about Breast Cancer and support women to reduce their Breast Cancer risks.

Let us encourage all women of child bearing age or who have a family history of Breast Cancer to be screened annually, but most importantly to check their breast regularly for signs of any changes.

This year Breast Cancer Awareness Month has been dubbed Pinktober. Our activities include the lighting of the Ministry of Tourism #NevisNice sign in pink. A podcast on Breast Cancer: Sexuality and Intimacy, with special guests Dr. Merisa Grant Tate and Mrs. Camara Lee-Prentice. There will also be a Workplace Lump Detection session with Dr. Essien and this will be conducted at selected business places.​

It is time to RISE! We rise with the courageous women and men who have been diagnosed with Breast Cancer and are fighting this dreaded disease daily. We rise and continue fighting for a cure but most importantly let us rise and continue to fight for access to universal quality health care for all.

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 6 (Reuters) – The wife of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise said on Wednesday after a judicial hearing into his murder that she would not rest until his killers were brought to justice.

Martine Moise went to meet with the judge in charge of the investigation of Moise’s death in July and said she answered questions for several hours.

In an impromptu statement from the courthouse, she urged anyone with information to come forward.

“Everybody says that in my country we won’t get justice. Even if people are telling me this. That’s where I’ll start to seek justice,” Moise said. “We’ll ask for justice in the morning, in the afternoon, at night, because I won’t stop until I get justice.”

More than 40 people have been arrested in connection with the murder, Haitian authorities have said, but it remains unclear who masterminded the operation and how they were able to gain access the president’s residence. Moise was gunned down at home by a group consisting mostly of Colombian mercenaries.

A crowd gathered outside of the courthouse in Moise’s support, chanting slogans against current acting head of state Ariel Henry. Later, a fight broke out between supporters of Moise and detractors.

Moise recently completed a small tour of her home country after a prolonged absence in the wake of the murder.

“I don’t wish this upon anyone,” Moise said. She said she had been married to the former banana importer for 25 years.

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Rishard Khan

The more infectious and deadly Delta coronavirus variant has now been detected in Tobago.

The news came from Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan PArasram during Wednesday’s virtual press conference where he indicated that six additional people were confirmed as being infected with the variant.

“Of the cases we have five of the Delta cases in Trinidad and we now have our first confirmed Delta case in Tobago,” he said.

“The data is being collected right now by the CMOHs as well as Dr Hinds and we’d present later on a full summary of what we found.

“This brings the total number of people confirmed with the Delta variant locally up to 32. He said the Ministry of Health received confirmation of the variant’s detection on Tuesday night.

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Judge orders Texas to suspend new law banning most abortions

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge ordered Texas to suspend the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., calling it an “offensive deprivation” of a constitutional right by banning most abortions in the nation’s second-most populous state since…Read More

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Now in power, Taliban set sights on Afghan drug underworld

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Now the uncontested rulers of Afghanistan, the Taliban have set their sights on stamping out the scourge of narcotics addiction, even if by force. At nightfall, the battle-hardened fighters-turned-policemen scour the capi…Read More

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Congress foresees short-term debt fix amid perilous standoff

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican and Democratic leaders edged back Wednesday from a perilous standoff over lifting the nation’s borrowing cap, with Democratic senators signaling they were receptive to an offer from Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell th…Read More

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Panel tackles issue of missing, slain Native Hawaiian women

HONOLULU (AP) — At first, he was just a boyfriend. He gave Ashley Maha’a gifts and attention. But then he gave her drugs and became controlling and abusive. He would punish her for breaking ambiguous, undefined “rules,” only to later say he was so…Read More

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More than 120,000 US kids had caregivers die during pandemic

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of U.S. children orphaned during the COVID-19 pandemic may be larger than previously estimated, and the toll has been far greater among Black and Hispanic Americans, a new study suggests. …Read More

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Three men were shot dead as gunmen travelling in a speeding Toyota Corolla motorcar opened fire on the occupants of a Toyota Mark X in downtown Montego Bay, St James on Wednesday afternoon.

Three other persons, including two bystanders, were shot and injured.

One of the injured victims has been hospitalised in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body.

The attack happened around 2 p.m. in the vicinity of Barracks Road and Hart Street in the St James capital. Dozens of spent shells and discarded magazines were scattered in the vicinity.

Commuters scampered in the busy commercial district as bullets rained.

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PUNTA CARDON, Venezuela, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Rebeca Reyes furiously scrubbed black tar from her kids’ arms after they swam in waters tainted by crude oil during a recent outing to Venezuela’s Punta Cardon beach.

A breach in an undersea pipeline owned by state-run oil company PDVSA that had gushed for at least 10 days before being sealed was the cause, leaving an oil slick that floated over fishing grounds, coating nets and fouling boat engines before washing onto the shores of western Venezuela’s Falcon state.

“We always come here to do something fun, but today we found this,” said 42-year-old Reyes, who had not known of the spill. “We have lost the only entertainment we had left.”

While oil spills in much of the world are widely reported and victims compensated, that is not the case in Venezuela. PDVSA suffers frequent and, in the case of Falcon, large leaks and emissions, especially along the nation’s Western coast, a region full of aging oilfields, pipelines and refineries.

Neither PDVSA, which has not made the incident public, nor Venezuela’s oil and eco-socialism ministries responded to requests for comment.

“We have been working on cleaning and remediation plans at the coast along with PDVSA,” Venezuela’s minister for eco-socialism, Josue Lorca, told local media earlier this year after a separate spill in Zulia state. “Oil spills are nothing out of the world,” he added.

BLOW TO FISHING

But the spills do come at a cost. As Reyes cleaned oil off her kids, so too were fishermen that day scraping oil from a harvest of shrimp in the nearby Acorote community.

“The oil spill has killed our job, our fishing ground and the shrimp farms,” said Samuel Ortiz, a fisherman who represents workers there. “This spill is punching us on the stomach, on the pockets.”

The leak affected about 500 fishermen in some 10 communities, the workers said, their nets, fish and shrimp catches coated with oil.

Fishermen in Rio Seco, across the bay from Punta Cardon, notified PDVSA about the spill on Sept. 16, according to a PDVSA internal report of the incident. The oil leaked from PDVSA’s Ule-Amuay 2, a 26-inch pipeline that transports crude to the Paraguana Refining Center.

“This is the first time I see a spill this big,” said a worker for PDVSA involved in the repairs, who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation. “The jet was about 2 meters high.”

PDVSA was able to completely stop the oil flow through the line for inspections and finished making repairs on Sept. 27, according to the report, which did not disclose the volume of oil lost.

FISHING DECLINE

Venezuela barely exports fish, but last year 180,000 tonnes were caught from its rivers and offshore fishing grounds, according to official figures. That compares with an annual average of 514,000 tonnes in 2003-2005, according to United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The bulk of the decline comes from a 2009 prohibition on trawling, but frequent PDVSA spills have worsened conditions.

Venezuela lacks a means to compensate those hurt by the incidents, a preliminary report by Venezuela’s Observatory of Ecologist Policy found this year.

Marine biologist Eduardo Klein, who monitors oil spills in Venezuela, estimated the length of the slick near Rio Seco at 65 kilometers (40 miles) based on satellite images. It traveled for days across the coast before being dispersed by winds. A large portion likely sank, while globs of oil arrived on the shore, he said.

A gas leak from a parallel line also was noticed last month by fishermen in Rio Seco, according to sources and a video seen by Reuters.

Through September this year, at least 53 spills have been reported in Venezuela by Klein and the Venezuelan Observatory of Political Ecology, including a large one in June that sent about 3.6 million liters of fuel into the Caribbean Sea.

Over three-quarters of total leaks have occurred at Falcon and Zulia states.

Up to 50,000 oil leaks and spills were tracked in the country between 2010 and 2016, according to a September report by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Oil spilling into Zulia’s Maracaibo lake has endangered its wildlife, water quality and human health, NASA said.

In Falcon, spills are frequent at a handful of crude, gas and fuel lines that go to Paraguana, the PDVSA worker said.

“This is the fifth leak in different spots of that subsea line in about a year,” Klein said.

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