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Open Door Policy
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Workers Representation on a National Scale
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Eric OtengSource: Africanews.com (Saturday 19th January 2019)
Sudan’s State Security Prosecution has issued arrest warrants for 38 journalists and activists on charges of “incitement” and spreading “false news”, local media reported.
According to Sudania 24, the state prosecutor’s office issued the warrants under articles 66, 69 and 77 of the Criminal Code and Article 17 of the Cybercrime Act.
The channel pointed out that the legal articles are related to “incitement, public disturbance, dissemination of false news, disturbing peace and public tranquillity, and distorting the reputation of natural and corporate figures”.
Activists and journalists inside and outside Sudan rely on social networking sites to spread news of the protests in the country by broadcasting pictures and videos of demonstrations.
Those indicted were journalists and electronic activists, including 28 residing outside Sudan. Arrest warrants were issued against them, according to Sudania 24.
The state prosecutor’s order comes as Sudan marks one month since protests against the deterioration of living conditions first began on December 19. The rallies expanded to demand the overthrow of the government of President Omar al-Bashir, who has been ruling for nearly 30 years.
The country’s economic crisis is driven by an acute shortage of foreign currency and soaring inflation that has more than doubled the price of food and medicines.
However, the president has held several emergency meetings with his cabinet and ruling party, which Morgan said shows just how concerned the government is regarding the ongoing protests.
On Friday, protests were renewed in a number of districts in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The Sudan Doctors’ Committee announced the death of a demonstrator in the district of Burri, east of Khartoum, from his wounds, raising the death toll to three from Thursday and Friday’s demonstrations.
According to government statistics, 25 people have been killed, but international rights organisations say the death toll is higher than 40, while at least 1,000 people have been arrested.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that he was “very worried” about the situation in Sudan.
“We strongly encourage the government to be very attentive to the respect of human rights,” he told reporters in New York.
The BBC’s David Willis in Washington says Mr Trump might be poised to offer a concession on the Dreamers, who entered the United States with their parents illegally.
Image caption
Donald Trump is unlikely to declare a national emergency on the wall – yet
The Dreamers are currently protected from deportation under a programme that allows them to work but not get citizenship. Mr Trump has been trying to rescind the programme.
Sources told US media Mr Trump may extend protection for Dreamers for three years and also extend visas for Temporary Protection Status holders. More than 300,000 people from countries affected by war or disasters are allowed to live and work in the US under TPS, another system Mr Trump opposes.
Mr Trump will continue to demand $5.7bn for the wall, the sources say.
They also say it is unlikely he will declare a national emergency over the wall.
Such a declaration would free up funds, probably from defence department spending, but be hugely controversial and would almost certainly spark legal challenges.
So could this end the shutdown?
The Dreamers issue has been a key one for Democrats but, our correspondent says, movement on that front alone is unlikely to bring an end to the shutdown, given the bitter opposition among Democrats to the wall project, which they have called “immoral”.
Media captionFive questions about Trump’s border wall
Indeed, some Democratic sources have already been saying the expected concessions are inadequate.
There is certainly growing pressure to end the shutdown and some politicians, including Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, have suggested a deal could be in the offing.
But the Democrats have said they will not negotiate until government is reopened.
There is also no end to the personal rancour. On Saturday, Mr Trump said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was “under total control of the radical left”. There are no talks planned either.
The Democrats are themselves working on legislation to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on other border security issues, including hiring more immigration judges.
How is the shutdown affecting unpaid workers?
Some of the 800,000 federal employees who have been going unpaid since 22 December are in increasingly dire straits.
More than 1,500 appeals have been set up by them on crowdfunding site GoFundMe, seeking a financial lifeline to pay rent or feed and clothe their children.
In desperation, the Department of Agriculture, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Aviation Administration have just recalled more than 50,000 employees, who must work without pay.
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 18th January 2019)- Two young men have been jointly charged for the attempted murder of the three young men who received gunshot wounds to their legs following a drive-by shooting in St. Paul’s while another suspect is in police custody.
29-year-old Maverick Tyson of Challengers Village and 26 year-old Kentab Tyson of West Farm Project were on Friday 11th January charged for three counts of Attempted Murder and one count of Discharging a Firearm in a Public Place.
According to a spokesperson at the Police Public Relations Department, the third individual in custody was held on Monday 14th January.
22-year-old Calvert Francis, 18-year-old Alvin Browne and a juvenile-believed to be a teenage boy- were attacked by gunmen on the night of Monday 7thJanuary just after 9:00PM.
The two young men charged in this matter were taken into police custody the day after the shooting incident.
Reportedly, on the night in question, the three young men were sitting on a wall next to Lover’s Lane Alley when a car stopped next to them.
Two men exited the car and opened fire on them following which they ran down the alley in an effort to escape and got shot in the process.
Local authorities have applauded the efforts of officers who were on patrol in the area that night for having quickly responded in thwarting the gunmen’s attack.
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 18th January 2019)- At this time, there is no date set for the visiting officers of the Regional Security System (RSS) to leave St.Kitts-Nevis since their latest deployment in October 2018.
Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr. Timothy Harris, during his opening remarks at his first press conference of 2019 held on Wednesday 16th January at Government Headquarters, outlined that those officers will be in the Federation as long as their support is necessary.
“The Regional Security System has been invited here to help complement our manpower needs. They will be here as long as the High Command of the security forces deems their support to be necessary,” PM Harris expressed.
He has commended the security forces who, in partnership with the RSS, “contained the homicide rate in our country.”
“From the period October 6 to present, our country has not had a homicide. In the six (6) weeks prior to the RSS arrival, we experienced one homicide per week,” the National Security Minister told.
To this end, Dr. Harris has thanked those RSS officers “for their contribution to the enhanced peace and security which we have experienced since October 2018.”
According to him, the RSS is a critical asset available to all RSS member states.
“We are the only country in the sub-region that is regular in our payments to the RSS. In fact, over the last 4 years we have contributed $7.4 million in membership dues to the RSS. This is our contribution to the preservation of regional security. The Regional Security System has been invited here to help complement our manpower needs. They will be here as long as the High Command of the Security Forces deems their support to be necessary. The peace-loving people of St. Kitts and Nevis have commended my Government on its bold move to invite the RSS. My Government believes in law and order. Every effort will be made to ensure the safety and security of Kittitians and Nevisians and all who reside in and visit our country.”
Dr. Harris added: “The presence of the RSS provides the opportunity for enhanced learning and training for the Police Force and for building their capacity to work in operations across law enforcement agencies at home and abroad.”
All law enforcement officers have been asked “to exhibit utmost professionalism when serving and protecting our people.”
Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY Published 7:49 p.m. ET Jan. 17, 2019 | Updated 8:56 a.m. ET Jan. 18, 2019
NEW YORK – Move over, Bonnie and Clyde: Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López are allegedly the world’s latest male-female crime duo.
They made their public debut Thursday before a Brooklyn federal court, where the onetime mistress and alleged partner in narcotics trafficking testifying against the accused Mexican drug lord – all as his wife looked on.
By turns almost breathless and at one point in tears, Sánchez, 29, recounted a three-year relationship in which she said she periodically shared Guzmán’s bed, helped him buy hundreds of kilos of marijuana and joined the buck-naked alleged leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel in escaping Mexican Marines via a secret underground tunnel.
“As far as today, I’m confused,” Sánchez testified through a Spanish interpreter. “I thought we were still involved romantically as partners.”
Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez is seen in this Undated photo provided by the US AttorneyÕs Office for the Eastern District of New York. (Photo: US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York )
If Guzmán’s wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, was angry about the infidelity, she wasn’t saying so in public.
“I don’t speak English,” she said, in English.
Sánchez wore a light blue jail smock as she testified – she pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge last year.
Flipping on her former lover, she acknowledged that she hopes prosecutors will ask a sentencing judge to grant her leniency in return for her cooperation.
Sánchez is the latest in a string of alleged former associates and underlings who have testified against Guzmán, giving jurors what prosecutors say is an inside look at a sprawling narcotics operation that smuggled tons of cocaine, heroin and other drugs into the United States.
But Sánchez’s account was different. Describing herself as El Chapo’s “home wife” who bought her lover’s clothes, underwear and lotions, she gave jurors a look at the most intimate and temperamental side of the partner more than 30 years her senior.
They met in 2011, she said. Within months, she said, she was traveling to the Sinaloa mountains, buying hundreds of kilos of marijuana for Guzmán’s operation as an unpaid helper.
She told jurors that she had kilos of marijuana in one shipment marked with a heart and the number 4, symbolizing her love for the man whose birthday is April 4th.
But she was also miffed that the assignment kept her away from him, she said, and so bought a lower-quality shipment that containedmany seeds.
This undated photo provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York shows an armed Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, left, posing with an alleged associate. (Photo: AP)
“I sent him packages with seeds because I wanted him to get upset with me and tell me to come back,” she said.
Her wish ultimately was granted. She said Guzmán transferred her to Mexico City to set up a front company, a phony juice business that was used to launder profits from drug profits.
By Sánchez’s account, both partners sometimes flashed anger at one another.
Guzmán told her he was proud of her, she said, but also warned cryptically that the Mafia “kills people,” particularly if they snitch.
Another time, Sánchez said, she was startled when her lover loudly threatened to kill anyone who betrayed him – even a family member.
Sánchez said she later learned that her lover had ordered the death of an uncle.
“Sometimes I loved him, sometimes I didn’t,” she said.
The relationship grew cold in 2012, Sánchez said. Still, she said, she readily agreed when Guzmán called her in early 2014 and asked her to join him in Los Cabos.
They met in one of his safe houses there, she said, and talked for hours before retiring for the night.
Before dawn, she said, the couple’s slumber was interrupted by loud banging. Mexican Marines were using a battering ram to break through the front door.
They escaped, she said, with a maid and a Guzmán aide nicknamed Condor, by climbing through the entrance of a tunnel hidden under a bathtub. While she, the maid and Condor had managed to get at least partly dressed, Guzmán had not, she said.
The tunnel led them to the local sewer system, where Sánchez said she could feel water lapping around her legs. After running and walking for about an hour, the escapees emerged near a small stream or river, she said.
An earlier trial witness, Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Victor Vazquez, told jurors he was with Mexican Marines who captured Guzmán weeks later in a Mazatlán hotel.
He was with his wife, and their twin baby daughters, Vazquez said.
File image shows Emma Coronel Aispuro, center, the wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, leaving Brooklyn federal court after opening arguments in the trial of the accused Mexican drug lord known on Nov. 13, 2018. (Photo: Mary Altaffer, AP)
The experience of testifying against appeared to inflict a heavy emotional strain on Sánchez.
She appeared unsettled as she returned from an afternoon recess. Later, when she retreated briefly to a waiting room, she could be heard over a lapel microphone, sobbing.
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 18th January 2019)- Three on-duty police officers involved in the recent controversial Marriott Hotel cops- visitors heated situation have been on the receiving end disciplinary action in the matter while an off-duty one is being praised for providing assistance to his colleagues.
Acting Police Commissioner Hilroy Brandy provided details during the answer and question segment of the Prime Minister’s press conference on Wednesday this week (16th January).
“Concerning the video at the Marriott, I think no member of the organisation was happy to see that video circulated on social media. However I must congratulate Constable Denver Herbert who was on some free time socialising at Marriot and was able to come to the rescue of two of his officers and help to bring that under control,” he said.
The top cop continued: “The couple was arrested and taken to the Frigate Bay Police Station and later they should have been charged and taken before the court. However, some three officers did not perform their duties that is mandated by law. An investigation was launched and as a result, disciplinary charges were proffered against those officers who. That is all I wish to say at this time.”
Although the three officers in this matter are being frowned upon, according to information coming from the Police Public Relations Department, no officer was bribed by the visitors as rumours have been claiming.
“…the High Command would like to assure the public that misinformation being circulated that Officers involved in the incident received a bribe from the visitors has proven to be false. While the situation itself was an unfortunate one, the peddling of such false information, that was clearly deliberately intended to deceive the public, is even more regrettable,” it has been revealed.
Meanwhile, as it relates to the officers’ employment status, ACP Brandy says two are currently on sick leave while the other is still on duty.
The incident took place during the night time of New Year’s (Tuesday 1stJanuary) in the hotel’s lobby reportedly while two officers were responding to a report involving the visiting couple believed to be from the United States.
A cellphone video footage spanning some 4 minutes and 39 seconds shows an altercation between two local officers in uniform and the caucasian (white) male-female pair.
The man can be heard swearing at very close in the face of one of the cops while an individual believed to be an employee at the hotel attempts to diffuse the situation. Another police officer is seen being poked in the chest by the loud-talking man.
At one point, that man is seen rushing to attack that same officer but fails to do so as the hotel worker intervenes in pushing the officer aside out of the man’s reach while trying to appeal to the attacker to behave.
The man’s wife/girlfriend is see trying to pull him away from going at the officer also. However, the situation escalates and the man gets a closer reach of the officer while the other cop tries to assist his colleague from the attacker which soon after saw the man’s girlfriend/wife pulling the officer by his shirt to let go of her boyfriend/husband.
Shortly thereafter, the man was handcuffed and the woman held in a restrained manner before being led through the hotel lobby and on the outside.
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 18th January 2019)- Waters Anchor Medical Institute is the name of a US$ 60 million dollar plus medical facility to be constructed at Christophe Harbour located at the South East Peninsula in the year 2020, spearheaded by Caribbean Healthcare Partners Ltd.
On the afternoon of Monday 14th January, members of the local media were invited to a press briefing held at The Pavilion of the Christophe Harbour premises.
Seated at the head table were Vice President of Waters Anchor Institute Pete Plamann; Chief Operating Officer Caribbean Healthcare Partners Ltd. and Waters Anchor Medical Institute Mary Miller Sallah; Greg Downey Co-founder of Caribbean Healthcare Partners Ltd Managing Member and another Co-founder of Caribbean Healthcare Partners Ltd and Managing Member Denzil Crooke of St.Kitts-Nevis.
Building work on the facility is expected to start during the second quarter of this year with a timeframe of a 16 to 18 month construction period.
Features will include eight (8) patient guest rooms and four (4) operating rooms.
Notably, patients to the facility would have to be referred to go there by a doctor. Also, the facility would not be an emergency unit.
Miller Sallah informed that the facility: “It is a 75,000 plus square foot medical facility that will focus specifically as of today in spine, sports medicine which includes orthopedics, joints, plastic, a very in-depth health and wellness service line which will include things such as executive health, women’s wellness and a number of other programmes that we will rotate from an outpatient standpoint and also regenerative medicine.”
She added: “We will also have a full diagnostics suite, 4,000 square foot physical therapy, rehabilitation space and then of course all the ancillary services within the healthcare facility that support the operation of delivering those services.”
Speaking to the client base, Miller Sallah had this to say: “The average patient or any patient that is going to be coming through the doors of Waters Anchor Medical Institute could be any individual in St.Kitts and Nevis as well as any individual across the 36 go to market strategy that we have so we are bringing through Waters Anchor Medical Institute services, clinical expertise that historically has been unavailable through various payer strategies …but the clientele is going to cover a very broad scope and through referrals.”
She emphasised that patients seen would be referred to the facility by their (the patients) doctors.
“So we are not running an emergency department or other acute care services so any patient coming through our doors will come through a referral; it could be a primary care physician here in St.Kitts, it could be a physician in Antigua, it could be a physician in Puerto Rico, it could be a physician in Trinidad etc. and more abroad.”
Miller Sallah went on to say: “So we will like to stay away from profiling a particular patient demographic because based on the standards that we are going to be operating at, any type of patient should come through our doors and the service and the quality and the expectation of what we will be delivering would be equal.”
Meanwhile, Plamann stated that services would be affordable.
“First and foremost we will be delivering care for local St.Kitts-Nevis citizens and we will be doing on the most affordable pricing that we can deliver. The quality outcomes are going to be at standards that are very, very high,, we will be recruiting and we have physicians lined up that would be delivering that quality outcomes according to the standards and their track records from where they currently practice be it in the US, the UK and according to the standards of St.Kitts-Nevis, they will have to be certified and qualified here so that care delivered to our local citizens along with the surrounding Caribbean island and of course my background of having roughly 30 years of experience in the US market working with different payers…insurance companies, different associations…”
Crooke recalled that he met Downey in 2013 while visiting his (Crooke) son and daughter in Indianapolis in the US. They were introduced by his son at church event.
The two held a meeting the next day whereby he (Crooke) shared “with him my own burden of the development of something quite meaningful in St.Kitts and out of this discussion came some interesting ideas.”
Initially, the pair thought of the manufacturing medical devices.
“…and then one thing led to the next and today we are just on the verge of having a ground breaking for what is going to be a 60 million plus US dollars facility with some other ancillary services to be added on,” Crooke pointed out.
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) hereby advises the public that it has retrieved counterfeit $100 Eastern Caribbean notes in St Kitts and Nevis bearing the serial number “WB365443”. The public is urged to be cognisant of counterfeit notes.
Counterfeit notes have no value and persons in possession of them may be prosecuted. Vigilance should therefore be exercised when conducting cash transactions to ensure the authenticity of notes. The features of genuine EC notes include:
Security Threads – when a banknote is viewed from the front under reflected UV light, the letters ECCB and the denomination value of the note are clearly visible in yellow, against a blue background. A second security thread is also present which is a narrow, continuous black line to the left of the Queen’s portrait.
Raised Print Over Foil – The notes bear a highly reflective silver foil, which shows the denomination. The letters ECCB and the denomination can be seen in small print around the foil. For added security, the foil is over-printed with a raised print.
Watermark – A mould-made watermark depicting Queen Elizabeth II appears three-dimensional, when held up to the light.
Novel Numbering – Each individual banknote bears a unique serial number, which is printed vertically on the left hand side of the note and horizontally in “novel” numbering style on the right hand side.
See Through Feature – When the genuine note is held up to the light, parts of the fish fill in, as the area on the back of the note line up perfectly with the front.
Please be reminded that genuine bank notes are printed on special paper that gives them a unique feel. Posters highlighting the security features of the Eastern Caribbean Bank Notes are available on the Bank’s website at https://www.eccb-centralbank.org/p/security-features-of-bank-notes .
If you encounter any suspicious looking note, take it to the ECCB Headquarters, any of the ECCB Agency Offices or the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) within your territory for assessment.
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 17th January 2019)-Two persons have been taken into police custody in relation to a shooting incident that occurred earlier today (Thursday 17 January 2019) in the St. Peter’s community involving the son of a former Speaker of the National Assembly.
Wounded is Marlon Martin who is believed to be his early to mid 20s.
Information reaching this media house indicates that the injured young man is the son of former House Speaker Curtis Martin.
Police say the incident took place at about 7:45 AM at Stapleton Garden.
Investigations so far have revealed that Martin received injury to his feet while driving along a road in the area.
He was treated at and discharged from the Joseph N France General Hospital.
Martin’s vehicle was also damaged.
Residents in the area claim to have heard at least seven (7) shots fired.
Images of the damaged vehicle being circulated via social media shows what appeared to be over four bullet holes including to the windshield.
Persons with information in relation to this incident are asked to call the Violent Crimes Unit (VCU) at 467-1887, 467-1888, or 662-3468 or the crime hotline at 707.
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Tuesday 15th January 2019)- Police are reporting that a third suspect is in custody in connection with the recent drive-by shooting in St. Paul’s which left three young men including an underage boy and two adult males wounded to their legs.
According to a spokesperson at the Police Public Relations Department, that individual was held yesterday (Monday).
This latest development in this criminal matter comes one week after 22-year-old Calvert Francis, 18-year-old Alvin Browne and a juvenile were attacked by gunmen on the night of Monday 7th January just after 9:00PM.
The next day (Tuesday), two individuals were arrested.
Reportedly, on the night in question, the three young men were sitting on a wall next to Lover’s Lane Alley when a car stopped next to them.
Two men exited the car and opened fire on them following which they ran down the alley in an effort to escape and got shot in the process.
Local authorities have applauded the efforts of officers who were on patrol in the area that night for having quickly responded in thwarting the gunmen’s attack.
