BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Wednesday 18^th September 2019) – Local authorities have revealed what caused the recent deaths of an American tourist and a local while at the beach  following autopsies conducted showing the same results.

In the Saddlers area on the morning of Saturday 7^th September, a 23-year-old resident, Marcus Rubaine, was pronounced dead shortly after being removed from the water after a diving incident.

Autopsy results conclude that death was as a result of asphyxia due to drowning.

Police say enquiries revealed that Rubaine and one other person went diving at Lavington Bay at about 7 a.m, and that sometime later, he experienced difficulty at sea and drowned.

His body was removed from the water by a civilian, brought to the shore and the Emergency Medical Services was summoned. He was pronounced dead by the District Medical Officer.

Five days after on Thursday 12^th September, police responded to a report- received at about 11 a.m- of a drowning that occurred at a beach at the South East Peninsula involving a 72-year-old male tourist.

Enquiries revealed that Gregory Dean Vematsu of California, U.S.A went snorkelling with his wife at Banana Beach when he experienced difficulty at sea and drowned.

The District Medical Doctor arrived at the scene and pronounced him dead.

An autopsy carried out revealed that death was also as a result of asphyxia due to drowning.

Both autopsies were performed on Friday 13^th September by Resident Pathologist Dr. Adrian Nunez.

BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Wednesday 18^th September 2019) –A total of seventeen (17) nationals from various fields including music, sports and education have been approved to receiveNational Honours Award.

This announcement was made by Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris while speaking at the government’s annual National Heroes ceremony held at the National Heroes Park on Monday 16^th September.

“Today, we celebrate our national heroes and all other unsung heroes for their contribution to nation building. Our Governor General has approved the following National recipients of Honours Award consistent with the National Honour Act.”

The individuals listed under the Companion of the Star of Merit are as follows: Dr. Calvin Hazel – for Spiritual Development and Advancement of our People, Bishop Joseph Henville – for Religion and Community Development, Mr. Erstein Edwards – for Public Service and Diplomacy, Mr. Augustine Merchant – for Agricultural Development in Service to the Nation, Mr. Bruce Skerritt – for Music locally, regionally and internationally as well as Mrs. Marilyn Bertie Guishard – for Education and Religion, Mr. Lester Blackett – for Sports, Mrs. Yvette Slack – for Pre-School Education and Community Activism, Mr. Antonio Liburd – for Culture, Mr Evered (Webbo) Herbert – for Broadcasting, Mrs. Arabella Nisbett – for Farming, Mrs. Earlene Maynard – for Education, Mr. Anthony Evelyn – for Ongoing Efforts to Enhance the Cause of Building Contractors, Ms. Julietta Martin – for Performing Arts (Dance), Mrs Alice Swanston – for Education and Community Outreach and Mr. Oswald Elliott – for Education and Mr. Michael (Mic Heyliger) Stokes – for Musical Production and Artistry.

“Heroes are important, whether they are political or religious leaders, entertainers, or athletes. They serve a purpose in our society and they help give people hope and provide examples for success,” Dr. Harris stated.

He continued: “Through the story of their successes, and indeed their failures too, other people can understand their talents and their will to succeed. Perhaps nothing is more powerful than the power to inspire.”

He encouraged that “In our daily lives what we ourselves do, as captains of industry and commerce or members of the medical or any other fraternity can evoke a spirit of heroism, which in turn creates a climate of hope, which can help facilitate change for the better.”

“We are a developing nation and we seek advancement for our islands. Our National Heroes have left us their example to show us how to serve our people and how to deliver enlightenment and hope. In their stories we can all take pride and learning. To be sure none of them found themselves conflicted between their loyalty for St Kitts and Nevis and their loyalty to another Country. Such was their patriotism and love for St Kitts and Nevis,” he said further.

BASSTERRE, St.Kitts (Sunday 15th September 2019) – The National Disaster Coordinator at the National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA), Adbias Samuel, informed this afternoon that a block section along the island main road in the Lodge Village area is now passable after debris have been removed in aftermath of a landslide said to have occurred earlier today.

The agency is also  advising members of the public to cautious regarding heavy downpours expected to continue overnight.

“Please be advised that the road has been cleared and caution should be exercised,” he advised.
 Motorists and others are being asked to be extremely cautious while travelling as heavy downpours have been causing hazardous conditions in low lying and other areas that are prone to flooding.

“Conditions are expected to improve slightly this afternoon, before decreasing once again overnight into tomorrow,” the agency cautions.
Additionally, persons are also cautioned against parking in ghauts or other known waterways at this time.
” You are also encouraged to monitor the approach of any system to the federation, no matter how small it may seem, via local media.”
NEMA along with the Fire and Rescue Services were among the responding departments following the landslide incident.
This media house understands that while the matter interupted the flow of traffic, no injuries or damages were recorded.

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 13^th September 2019)-The father of a well-known ‘beauty and brain’ pageant participant, 27-year-old Taitu Goodwin, who was a delegate in the first annual Miss Black San’ International Swimsuit Pageant held in April 2017 in St.Kitts, is calling for the death penalty in the case of an ex-boyfriend who alleged stabbed her to death earlier this week in Anguilla.

 Her father Bruce Goodwin, Antigua and Barbuda’s former Ambassador to Cuba, aired such sentiments during a live telephone interview on ABS television on the day in question describing her to be “My most beautiful, brightest best of out all of my 11 children. She was the love of my life, the greatest love of my life” as he furthered his call for “the death penalty for murderers.”

Details from the Public & Media Relations Department in Anguilla said the incident involving this “tragic death” took place on Monday 9^th September at about 4:30 AM in the Windward Point Area.

To date, Glenville Hodge, a 23yr old male of Island Harbour has been charged for the offence of Goodwin’s murder and remanded to Her Majesty Prison.

According to Goodwin, the accused killer was his daughter’s “boyfriend until a year ago when she separated from him.”

 He added: “He has been obsessed with her since then, [harassing] her on several occasions until finally in the wee hours of this morning, he apparently broke into her apartment where she lived alone and he murdered her brutally.”

As gathered, Taitu -who originally hails from Antigua and Barbuda- moved to Anguilla some years ago with her mother.

 “…she was a teacher in the school system down there. She went to study law which was her passion. She studied law at the University of Cardiff in Wales and at the University of [Université Catholique de] Lyon in France and just last year, she graduated with her Master’s Degree in Trade and Investment law from the University of St John’s University [School of Law] in New York and her most beautiful and shining dream were to practice in her legal profession and rise within that profession as an accomplished lawyer,” the grieving dad said.

 Additionally, he told that she was a linguist who spoke several languages.

It is understood that she was the head of her department at the Ministry of Finance in Anguilla.

Goodwin said she visited Antigua regularly and stayed with him with her most recent visit being about two months ago.

Notably, Taitu was crowned Miss Anguilla in 2012 and also placed second runner-up in Miss Jaycees in 2013 during the annual carnival festivities in her birth country of Antigua and Barbuda.

 “She was certainly one of the best and brightest of her generation. She was also a beauty queen if I can say that even though I never approved of her entering that kind of pageantry. She was so accomplished in every field. Her personality is beyond description interims of its beauty and all of her friends would regard her as being jovial, conversational and witty and all those things.”

 In commenting on what should happen to his daughter’s accused murdered, he stated: “I have always been an advocate of the death penalty for murderers…and I continue to be an advocate of the death penalty. It may not be 100% effective as a deterrent but it still has some deterrence  and if our judiciary had not gone soft on murderers and criminals, many of those who have died at the hands of these demonic personalities would still be alive today and so I think it would be for my beloved Taitu and I am calling on my judiciary to return to the days when they were tough against demonic perpetrators like the brutal murderers we have strutting around in the Caribbean thinking ‘Oh, I can do as I like with other people’s lives and I will spend a few years in jail and come out  and walk about the place and be happy  just as if nothing had happened. They must be hanged by their necks until they are dead.

The Black San’ committee has expressed condolences via its social media Facebook account saying in part: “Taitu was a delegate in the first ever Miss. Black San’ International but due to circumstances beyond our control, she did not compete on show night. However, she spent the entire week in St. Kitts with us and we enjoyed her company. She was a very strong and determined individual which made her stood out. This unfortunate news has hit us hard. We constantly follow the progress of our past delegates and this is certainly not the type of information we wish to receive.”

BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 6^th September 2019) – Eustacia Morton, a 20-year-old female from St.Kitts-Nevis, who is currently attending university in the US, has launched a feminine hygiene care brand called Nat’ral Luxuries described to be 100% natural.

“It’s all natural products made with selected herbs to help cure and heal the vagina naturally. We the products goddess bar, feminine wash and also detox pearls.We also plan to come out with different products along the way. Most of our products is for yeast infection, vagina viruses and even people with fibroids which is for the detox pearls and it also helps with vagina wetness, like natural feminine issues,” she revealed during an exclusive interview with this reporter at a recent pop-up-shop on Fort Street.

Product ingredients include aloe vera, essential oils, coconut oil and cocoa butter oils.

Commenting on what motivated her to come up with the product line, she shared: “I was inspired because I realised that young teenagers and women like myself have issues with yeast infection especially like how we have hot climate in S.Kitts-Nevis, and I also realise that most of them don’t know how to take care of their vagina so I did some research and found herbs because we believe that the power of healing is in the environment. It’s been going really good; I really want to focus on natural products because chemicals do not belong on or in your vagina.”

The items are produced in Miami at her school Florida International University where she is a third year student studying Biology and Agriculture.  The product line was launched in December 2018.

“Along the way, I plan to go to medical school to become a doctor but a herbalist because I don’t want to deal with the pills and so forth,” she said. 

Morton’s  male assistance Vikell Edwards-Douglas talked about the product sold the fastest that day.

“We started at 11am today and we had 60 pearls and the pearls were the first to finish because persons would have been hearing about the buzz about the pearls and how amazing they work from. The pearls are an inside cleanser for the vagina and they clean the vagina and the womb. What they do is they get rid of dry skin, dead cells, blood clots and mucus and it cleans it out. Additionally, for those of you who have issues conceiving and what’s not, it also helps in that area. The products give the vagina a natural scent not a sweet scent…” he informed.

Quizzed about the most popular item, Morton remarked: “I would say the most popular product is the goddess bar but the pearls have just been released and it looks like they would take over an we have three different scents in the wash- natural, mint and lavender and the mint is the favourite for many females but my favourite is the lavender because I just love the scent.”

The young entrepreneur, who hails from the St. Peter’s community in Stapleton Village, said customer feedback has been really good.

“ My customers have been pushing me to bring out more products but  I have to do some more research to be accurate and make sure that they actually work because it’s not just about the money.”

In providing hygiene advice to her gender peers, Morton had this to say: “The most important thing is to stop using those high brand soaps because most of them have chemicals and those are what really throws off your pH balance so if you don’t have the natural stuff just use water instead of those high brand stuff.”

Furthermore, she recommends that hygiene care in young girls start at an early age.

“I would say at the age of 12 or when you start your menstruation because that is when your body start releasing most of the toxins so I would advise the parents to educate their children on these stuff and the parents need to be educated also.”

For more information, individuals can visit the business page via Instagram or send an email via CONTACT@NATRALLUXURIES.COM.