Tag Archives: caribbean

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Jamaica: 2 Killed in Another Gangland Hit

Gleaner– Blood still stains the road near the Gordon Town Road breakaway following a gun attack on Tuesday afternoon that killed two men and left two others hospitalized in what has been theorized to be a gang hit.

Dead are 27-year-old Raymond Palmer, who was killed on the spot, and 39-year-old Damoy Foster, who succumbed to his injuries at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).

Andre Jackson, 22 years old, and 37-year-old Dwight Green from Mavis Bank were injured and are currently being treated at the UHWI. Jackson is said to be in critical condition.

The men were reportedly standing among a group of persons at a stall at about 5:20 p.m. when several men armed with handguns approached the group and opened fire.

The stall was operated by Foster, who residents believe was the target of the hit.

A male resident who requested anonymity told The Gleaner that Foster received death threats after refusing to carry out the request of a gang.

His sister, Nicole Foster-Henry, said the stall was an extra hustle, in addition to the bar and shop he operated in partnership with the mother of his one-year-old child, just beyond Gordon Town Square.

Foster-Henry told The Gleaner that she was numb upon hearing the news.

“I was the first to arrive on the scene and to the hospital. I couldn’t react but mi feel everything inna mi move when mi close his eyes,” she said.

They are from a close-knit family of seven children from both parents.

Still in disbelief, Foster-Henry keeps thinking of how she could have been caught in the crossfire if she had stopped there on her way from work.

She recalled her brother as a jovial, positive person who was favoured among the youths in the community and known to discourage criminal involvement.

“Him stop smoke about three to four months ago, but even when him did a smoke him a encourage others not to start smoking,” she shared.

Foster-Henry recounted a youngster turning to her brother for advice while mulling over a decision to carry out an illegal act. Her brother’s good advice were reportedly effective in dissuading the young man.

Fond memories of Foster resurfaced as text messages streamed in to his sister’s mobile phone from community members recalling their interactions with him.

“Right now, I have to be trying to control my seven-year-old ‘cause all he talks about a him uncle. Every pickney love him,” she shared.

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World View: GOP to Block Insurrection Probe, Australian Mice Plague, Tigray Attrocities, More

May 28, 2021Alternate textHere is today’s selection of top stories from The Associated Press.

 

The Rundown

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are poised to block the creation of a special commission to study the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, dashing hopes for a bipartisan panel amid a GOP push to put the violent insurrection by Donald Trump’s…Read More

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The nine people who were killed in a shooting at a California rail yard were remembered by their families, colleagues and friends as loving, kind-hearted and heroic….Read More

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MEKELE, Ethiopia (AP) — Women who make it to the clinic for sex abuse survivors in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray usually struggle to describe their injuries. But when they can’t take a seat and quietly touch their bottoms, the nurses kn…Read More

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BOGAN GATE, Australia (AP) — At night, the floors of sheds vanish beneath carpets of scampering mice. Ceilings come alive with the sounds of scratching. One family blamed mice chewing electrical wires for their house burning down. …Read More

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LONDON (AP) — A drug dealer in the English city of Liverpool thought he was the big cheese — until police got all the evidence they needed to arrest him from a picture he shared of himself holding a small block of creamy Stilton. …Read More

OTHER TOP STORIES

CHIBAISH, Iraq (AP) — “Don’t move a muscle.” His command cut across the reeds rustling in the wind. On a moonlit embankment several kilometers from shore in Iraq’s celebrated…Read More

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A navigation timing error sent NASA’s little Mars helicopter on a wild, lurching ride, its first major problem since it took to the Martian skies …Read More

SEATTLE (AP) — Five weeks after ex-Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, three Washington state officers have been charged in the death…Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are poised to use a filibuster to derail Democrats’ effort to launch a bipartisan probe of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The showdown…Read More

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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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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)

[back to top ↑]

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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Top Cuban Baseball Player Defects on Florida Trip

BBC- Cesar Prieto, one of Cuba’s top baseball stars, has abandoned his national team while in Florida for a qualifying event for the Olympics.

Prieto left the hotel shortly after he and his teammates had arrived.

In a statement, the Cuban Baseball Federation confirmed the 22-year-old had “abandoned” the delegation.

Cuban athletes have a long history of defecting, with baseball players, ballet dancers and footballers among those who have left their country.

Baseball journalist Francys Romero tweeted that Prieto had jumped into a vehicle shortly after getting off the team bus and was reportedly quickly driven away.

Infielder Cesar Prieto #6 of Cuba flies out in the top of fifth inning during the WBSCiGetty Images The infielder (in red) has previously broken records while playing for Cienfuegos

In its statement, the Cuban Baseball Federation criticised Prieto’s move and said it had generated “repudiation among his colleagues and other members of the delegation”.

Prieto is considered one of the country’s best young prospects.

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Analysis by Will Grant, BBC Cuba correspondent

Prieto’s defection undoubtedly weakens the Cuban team as it heads in search of its fourth Olympic gold for baseball in Japan. Prieto was a record-breaking batter on the Communist-run island and considered one of the team’s most valuable assets.

If, as expected, he now follows other high profile Cuban defectors into a Major League Baseball (MLB) team, he could sign a contract worth tens of millions of dollars.

Cuba denounced the practice of enticing its best talent to abandon the island with lucrative contracts as “people trafficking” and criticised the US government for not facilitating a system to, as it put it, “normalise” the inclusion of its players in the MLB without them having to resort to defection.

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The Cuban team had arrived in Florida after a lengthy battle to obtain US visas.

Relations between Cuba and the US have been strained for decades. The US embassy in the capital, Havana, which re-opened under President Barack Obama, has been closed for all but emergency consular affairs since President Donald Trump reversed much of Mr Obama’s thaw in Cuban-US relations.

The Cuban players finally obtained the necessary visas on Tuesday after a special effort by the US Embassy in Havana, according to the AP News agency.

The last-minute issuing of visas furthered Cubans’ hopes of achieving a fourth gold medal in baseball at the Tokyo games later this year.

The side is set to play in a group along with Canada, Colombia and Venezuela during the qualifying tournament held in Florida next week.

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Convicted murderer gets life sentence

By Monique Washington

Convicted murderer, Jamaican National Alston “ Mark” Phillips, will be serving the rest of
his life in prison for taking the life of Lydia Jacobs in June 2017.

On Thursday (May 27), Justice Ermin Moise sentenced Phillips to life imprisonment, with
a minimum term of 35 years, for murder. He was also sentenced to six years and six
months for two counts of attempted murder.

The Observer asked the Director of Public Prosecutions, Valston Graham, why the death
sentence had not been imposed. He noted that in this case, he didn’t seek it.

Phillips was charged with the 2017 murder of Jacobs, and two counts of attempted murder
of Michelin Brooks and Erica Williams.

Jacobs, who lived in Church Ground, arrived home in the evening hours of June 2, 2017,
when her friends dropped her off after she finished work. The 37-year-old woman had just
stepped into her yard when an assailant opened fire on her and the vehicle that brought her home. Jacobs was taken to the Alexandria Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Jacobs was the friend of Phillips’ ex-wife. The wife had previously roomed with Jacobs
and her children at Church Ground.

Phillips’ trial lasted two weeks at the Theodore Hobson QC High Court. The bible-
carrying man was represented by Brian Barnes. On Thursday, November 19, 2020, the

jury took three hours to unanimously give a guilty verdict for the murder of Lydia Jacobs,
the attempted murder of Michelin Brooks and the attempted murder of Erica Williams.

Phillips will be spending at least the next 35 years at Her Majesty’s Prison in St. Kitts.

Phillips’ sentencing signalled the closure of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Nevis
Circuit this week. Three cases that were traversed from past assizes were heard; those of
Loston Nisbett who was charged with possession of a firearm (not guilty); Sherman
Sinclair, who was charged with unlawful and maliciously setting of fire, and Kereece
Archibald, who was charged with embezzlement by the servant (pleaded guilty awaiting
sentencing).

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