HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — US-based money transfer company Western Union will close its offices in Cuba following new sanctions from Washington which prevent it from working with Fincimex, a financial company run by the island’s military, Havana said Tuesday. The firm will close its “407 agencies located throughout the country because of these brutal provisions,” Fincimex said in a statement posted on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website. It added that the sanctions, which came “in the midst of the pandemic, underscore the cynicism, contempt for the Cuban people and opportunism of the US government”. The measures, which were announced…
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OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday told Canadians exhausted by the coronavirus that the pandemic “really sucks” on the same day the nation’s death toll was reported to have topped 10,000. With fatigue setting in as the pandemic enters its tenth month, Canada has seen an uptick in people flouting public health rules on social distancing and mask-wearing. “We’re in an unprecedented global pandemic. That really sucks,” Trudeau told a news conference. The prime minister acknowledged growing frustration, including over the lockdown of businesses once again amid a second wave of infections. Figures released by several…
The indefatigable General Secretary of the Unity Labour Party (ULP) Julian Francis has rubbished rumours from the New Democratic Party (NDP) camp that his disappearance from the public spotlight was due to ill health. He told thousands of supporters gathered at the party’s manifesto launch last Sunday evening that he had been hard at work for the party. “I just want to assure all of you, Julian Francis is not sick. Don’t bother with the NDP. I don’t have any type of cancer. I dey good and I been in the engine room and what I get here tonight, I…
A tropical wave is approaching the islands and scattered showers with thunderstorm activity are likely across St.Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) tonight, increasing Wednesday with pockets of moderate/heavy showers and thunderstorms. Slight haze is possible across our area late Wednesday, but unstable conditions could maintain occasional showers during Thursday as another tropical wave quickly crosses the islands with a wind surge. Upper level support is expected to increase the chance for significant showers with thunderstorm activity late Thursday into Friday. Moderate to fresh (~ 20 – 35 km/h’) north-easterly trades could turn east south-easterly Wednesday and gradually decrease to gentle…
PARIS (AP) — At least four people, including two young children, died Tuesday when a boat carrying at least 19 migrants capsized off France while trying to cross the English Channel to Britain, French authorities said. Fifteen migrants have been saved so far and rescue and search operations were still under way, according to the regional administration for the Nord region. It said in a statement that the dead were a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old, an adult woman and an adult man, and stressed that the toll so far is provisional pending further searches in the area. Aid groups decried…
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia has applied to the World Health Organization for accelerated registration and pre-qualification of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the country’s sovereign wealth fund said Tuesday. Russia announced in August that it had registered the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, named after the Soviet-era satellite. On Tuesday, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which finances the vaccine, said that accelerated registration would make Sputnik V “available globally in a shorter time frame than usual procedures”. “The Russian Federation has become one of the first countries to apply to WHO for pre-qualification of its vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection,” RDIF…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Amy Coney Barrett was formally sworn in Tuesday as the Supreme Court’s ninth justice, her oath administered in private by Chief Justice John Roberts. Her first votes on the court could include two big topics affecting the man who appointed her. The court is weighing a plea from President Donald Trump to prevent the Manhattan district attorney from acquiring his tax returns. It is also considering appeals from the Trump campaign and Republicans to shorten the deadline for receiving and counting absentee ballots in the battleground states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County filed…
The members of the Thusian Institute for Religious Liberty Inc. (TIRL) wish all Vincentians a blessed 41st anniversary of political independence. TIRL is a non-profit, non-governmental Human Rights Education services provider with a special focuson Liberty of Conscience, otherwise known as the Right to Religious Liberty or the First Right. While we are politically independent, we are not and ought never to think ourselves independent of God. It is God the Creator—the Great Legislator of the Universe —who made us with inalienable and inviolable Rights and Freedoms which we must celebrate at Independence. These fundamental Rights are:The Right to Religious…
Delivering the Independence Address to mark this country’s 41st anniversary of political independence, Prime Minister Dr Hon Ralph Gonsalves announced the following: As of January 1st, 2021, all Public Servants who are university graduates will be appointed. This is estimated to benefit just over 100 workers. As of January 2021, all temporary workers in the public service will be appointed permanently once they possess the necessary entry qualifications. All former nursing assistants who retired before October 27, 2005 will begin to receive their pensions from the consolidated fund with an effective date January 1st, 2021. Persons receiving public assistance will…
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves says he believes “there is a general acceptance” within the Caribbean for a lowering of taxes so as to encourage intra-regional travel. Gonsalves, who is chairman of the 15-member regional integration grouping, CARICOM, told a panel discussion organised by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) on Thursday night, that the regional governments have come to the realisation that there is a need to lower airline taxes in order to make the sector profitable. He told the discussion on the “COVID-19 pandemic and regional air transport” that the governments would have…