Black Immigrant Daily News

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, July 05, 2022 (Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Mr. Osmond Petty has stated clearly that there is no easy way for any individual to access St. Kitts and Nevis passports, except through the normal application process.

Mr. Petty’s comments came in response to unfounded claims that a number of persons recently came into possession of a brand new St. Kitts and Nevis passports.

Speaking at last week’s (June 29) Cabinet Press Conference, Mr. Petty said, “I am 99.9 per cent sure that no one can generate a passport very easily from our passport office.”

“Normally it takes three persons to process a passport. In an emergency situation, the supervisor and one other person can do the passport, but the normal process is for three persons to process one passport,” Permanent Secretary Petty added.

He informed that all of the Federation’s passports are supplied and supervised by the Canadian Bank Note (CBN) company – a highly reputable security printing company based in Canada.

Mr. Petty said, “The passports when they come in, they are locked away. To get in to remove any passports the supervisor and our CBN trained technician, both of them simultaneously have to go to the locker and input their passwords and codes to open it and remove passports.”

The number of passports taken out of the locker at any given time is recorded at the passport office, the office of the permanent secretary and at the offices of the Canadian, Bank Note.

“If for instance X amount of passports is taken out then it’s going to crash the system because CBN right away will realise that something has gone wrong. And so when they talk about people going out with bags of passports it is just foolishness, you just cannot get it done. No one person can go into the system and remove a passport or any number of passports,” Mr. Petty reiterated.

The Ministry of National Security, in an official press statement, strongly condemned the false and politically malicious statements and urged persons involved to refrain from circulating such statements that are designed to mislead the public and seek to obtain cheap political points.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua, who went missing in Hong Kong five years ago, was due to go on trial in China on Monday, the Canadian embassy in Beijing said.

China-born Xiao, known to have links to China’s Communist Party elite, has not been seen in public since 2017 after he was investigated amid a state-led conglomerate crackdown. The specifics of the probe haven’t been disclosed by officials.

“Global Affairs Canada, our home office, is aware that a trial in the case of Canadian citizen Mr. Xiao Jianhua will take place today,” a Canadian Embassy official told Reuters over the phone in a readout of a statement from Ottawa.

“Canadian consular officials are monitoring this case closely, providing consular services to his family and continue to press for consular access.”

Xiao was ranked 32nd on the 2016 Hurun China rich list, China’s equivalent of the Forbes list, with an estimated net worth of $5.97 billion at the time.

At the centre of Xiao’s empire is the financial group Tomorrow Holdings Co.

In July 2020, nine of the group’s related institutions were seized by Chinese regulators as part of a crackdown on risks posed by financial conglomerates.

In 2021, regulators extended the one-year take-over period of the nine financial enterprises by another year to “further promote risk disposal work and defuse financial risks.”

The extended custody is set to end on July 16.

The seizures were preceded by a takeover of Baoshang Bank in 2019, a lender once controlled by Tomorrow, by regulators, citing severe credit risks.

The lender, which had operated nationwide, was revamped into a much smaller lender back in its home region of Inner Mongolia in northern China.

In recent years, a number of executives at big Chinese companies have been subject to investigation or prosecution amid a broader crackdown on corruption spearheaded by President Xi Jinping that has also ensnared politicians and bankers.

Among those who have fallen from grace was Jiang Jiemin, former head of China National Petroleum Corp, who was sentenced to 16 years for bribery and abuse of power in 2015.

In 2017, Ai Baojun, a former chairman of Baoshan Iron and Steel who had gone on to become vice mayor of Shanghai, was sentenced to 17 years in jail for bribery and graft.

(Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard in Beijing and Meg Shen in Hong Kong; writing by Ryan Woo; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

El reconocido guitarrista mexicano Carlos Santana se desmayó durante un concierto celebrado este martes en la ciudad estadounidense de Clarkston, en Míchigan, como resultado del agotamiento y la deshidratación por el calor, confirmó su representante, Michael Vrionis, en un comunicado publicado en la cuenta de Facebook del músico.

En las imágenes difundidas en redes sociales, se aprecia al guitarrista sentándose con dificultad ante lo cual algunos de sus compañeros y otras personas acudieron a socorrerlo. En un principio, Santana estaba consciente y respondía a quienes le ayudaban hasta que repentinamente colapsó.

Carlos Santana se desploma en el escenario durante un concierto en Michigan. pic.twitter.com/YQ9D29mOyR

— LΞLΞLΔPRUΞBΘ (@lelelx) July 6, 2022

El músico, de 74 años de edad, recibió primeros auxilios y logró recuperarse, aunque tuvo que salir del escenario en una camilla. Vrionis comunicó que el guitarrista fue trasladado a una sala de emergencias para observación, pero destacó que se encuentra “bien”.

Please pray for @SantanaCarlos @PineKnobMusic #CarlosSantana #pineknob pic.twitter.com/QN0PQkpiMX

— Donny (@BrascoProd) July 6, 2022

Tras el incidente, el concierto tuvo que ser suspendido y otra gala programada para este miércoles en la ciudad de Burgettstown, en Pensilvania, también ha sido pospuesta hasta nuevo aviso. En diciembre pasado, Santana canceló una serie de actuaciones en Las Vegas después de que fuera sometido a un procedimiento cardíaco no especificado y que no estaba programado.

Carlos Santana fue pionero en fusionar ritmos latinos con el género rock en la banda homónima que fundó en 1966 y, desde entonces, su figura y su música han obtenido todos los reconocimientos posibles. Fue incluido en el Salón de la Fama del Rock and Roll y en la lista de los 100 mejores guitarristas de la historia, elaborada por la revista Rolling Stones.

Noticia original de RT en Español. 

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

Lawmen are at the scene of an unnatural death along Browne’s Beach.

The lifeless body of an adult male was discovered at the water’s edge near Pirate’s Cove in Lower Bay Street, Bridgetown.

Officers from the Central Police Station received the report around 5:24 am today.

More details to come.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

At a recent public meeting in West Bay, Katherine Ebanks-Wilks outlined what she has been doing for the people of West Bay since her election and what the PACT government has recently done to address some of the public’s concerns. In doing so, Ebanks-Wilks stressed the importance of having a united district and indicated that, by working together, a lot more could be accomplished for all electoral districts than working individually as independent MPs. As such, it was fitting that Ebanks-Wilks was joined on the podium by other West Bay MPs, including McKeeva Bush, Bernie Bush and Andre Ebanks.

United district

Regarding the quest for unity in West Bay, Ebanks-Wilks said that she had spoken to constituents in West Bay who repeatedly spoke about elected officials working together.

They want to feel that, although we have constituencies to hold us the members of parliament accountable to you the constituents, everybody still wants to feel that we are all in the same district together.

Ebanks-Wilks said.

This approach to unity and team work reflects positively on Ebanks-Wilks as it is a mature approach to politics i.e., she is not seeking power for herself but to empower the people around her and, at the same time she is holding herself and her team accountable to members of the public.

Tonight, we’re here to really just show you that although we are all independent candidates, we all ran as independents, we are all here to work together to make West Bay the best it has ever been.

She reassured the audience.

Cost of living

Making West Bay the best it has ever been is a goal that is appropriate at this time too as talks of stagflation and recession threaten global economies and changes in circumstances are now impacting the cost of living locally for everyone.

In explaining the cost of living impacts, Ebanks-Wilks stated that the Ukraine-Russia war was a contributing factor to the higher fuel prices that Cayman was currently seeing. In order to address these higher fuel prices and forecasted increases in utility bills over the summer, Ebanks-Wilks highlighted the agreement between the PACT government and Caribbean Utilities Company to provide a fuel credit for some consumers, a helpful gesture to lessen the impact of increased prices on relevant consumers over the summer period.

In addition to fuel prices, the raising of interest rates by Cayman banks has caused some concern locally. In connection with this, Ebanks-Wilks hinted that updated legislation may be on the way to deal with situations where homeowners face challenges when they default on mortgages due to changes in interest rates.

Finally, Ebanks-Wilks emphasized that, given the combination of challenges, she understood what it must be like for some parents having to look forward to expenses associated with the start of a new school year after the summer. Such expenses, of course, are in the form of school supplies.

In providing a solution to struggling parents, Ebanks-Wilks said:

The West Bay MPs have agreed to provide all of the school supplies for all of the Sir John A Cumber primary school students for the 2022/2023 school year.

Also, for students who are outside of the primary school levels, we’re encouraging you to register with your constituency office for school supplies.

According to Ebanks-Wilks, all the students have to do is to show up to school with their backpacks and the supplies will be provided by the MPs.

Transportation and activity camps

The generous offering by the West Bay MPs was supplemented by an offer for free bus services for vacation Bible school. The aim, as Ebanks-Wilks put it, was to remove some of the burden for parents who would normally have to pick up and drop off their children, often losing time from work in the process.

We have partnered with the churches in West Bay. A lot of them are going to be offering vacation bible school. We are going to be offering bus services.

If you would like to register to have your child picked up on the bus, please come by the constituency office so that we can register you for your child to be dropped off at your homes.

We also recognize that there is a week where there isn’t any vacation bible school in the district.

So, the West Bay Central office has been working with various organisations to host a career themed camp and that is going to be the week of 25th July.

Ebanks-Wilks explained further.

Assistance with the elderly

In relation to a second vulnerable group, Ebanks-Wilks said that help was on the way for elderly persons in West Bay who needed to renew their passports.

Regarding this, Ebanks-Wilks mentioned that she had “partnered with a West Bay photographer” to take photos for the elderly so that they don’t have to leave West Bay just to take a passport photo. This comment from Ebanks-Wilks was met with an applause from the crowd.

Housing

In relation to affordable housing plans in West Bay, Ebanks-Wilks invited Mr Julio Ramos, the manager at the National Housing & Development Trust, to give an update to members of the public.

In his update, Ramos shared that the third phase of 19 houses is currently being completed in Boatswain Bay. While Ramos said that the government wanted to deliver the houses at “an affordable rate,” there were some challenges because they had close to 300 applications for affordable homes, but with only a fraction coming online.

Ramos tried to provide some reassurance to the audience in terms of affordable home availability by saying that the possibility of further land purchases were being considered in order to provide affordable homes on other properties for the persons who were not successful in the recent phases of building affordable homes in West Bay.

Ramos indicated that he was not only thinking of new homeowners, but the owners of affordable homes built almost two decades ago, which were now believed to be “condemned” and solutions were needed for those homeowners as well.

Roads

In terms of road works, Ebanks-Wilks indicated her gratitude to the Minister for Infrastructure and the National Roads Authority for assisting with public roads in West Bay. She indicated that, not only did the new road works benefit that particular area, but benefited the whole of West Bay.

NewsAmericasNow.com