NEWS
PAHO: Step up vaccinations
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on Monday urged countries to close the immunisation gap that led to hundreds of thousands of children not being vaccinated against several serious diseases last year. On Monday, PAHO launched Vaccination Week in the Americas 2021, April 24-30, with the slogan: "Vaccines bring us closer together." Read more here
Cops to question Bond workers over arms haul
Scores of workers at the Bond located at the Piarco International Airport, including Customs brokers, are to be questioned as part of the investigation into the major guns and ammunition discovery last Thursday night. A senior police officer, speaking under the condition of anonymity yesterday, said senders and recipients of illegal firearms and ammunition were using false names and addresses, making it hard to trace the perpetrators. Read more here
POLITICS
Gonzales: WASA's move against Duke not a personal attack
Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales has said the Water and Sewerage Authority’s (WASA) action against Public Services Association (PSA) president Watson Duke must not be seen as a direct attack. Instead, he said, it should be viewed as part of the authority’s transformational process. “It’s not about Watson Duke against the government or Duke against Sealy or Duke against the minister. Read more here
Browne: T&T to get some of 60 million vaccines from US
Trinidad and Tobago will receive some of the 60 million Astra Zeneca vaccines being donated by the United States. This came as welcomed news as the country was facing a shortfall in its current vaccination efforts. So far T&T has received 2,000 doses as a gift from Barbados, 33,600 from the COVAX facility and was gifted another 40,000 from India. Another 67,200 is expected from COVAX but the delivery date is uncertain. This country also has a Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA) signed with China for Sinopharm vaccines and already put in a pre-order but that vaccine does not yet have World Health Organisation (WHO) approval. That approval is expected at the end of April. Read more here
BUSINESS
CAL employees get CARPHA training
Caribbean Airlines (CAL) is collaborating with Caribbean Public Health Agency, through its Regional Traveller Health Programme (THP) to promote healthy, safer tourism as the region opens to tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more here
REGIONAL
Second elections petition tossed out
In accordance with the ruling by Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George, C.C.H, S.C. that there was no breach of the Constitution by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to make the elections “a sham or a travesty as claimed by the petitioners”, the last standing Election Petition, 88 of 2020, was tossed out. In a thorough, comprehensive and well-reasoned judgement, the Chief Justice (ag) sitting in the High Court of the Supreme Court of Judicature on Monday dismissed the Elections Petition which sought to vitiate the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, not based on evidence, but hinged on a legal argument pertaining to the constitutionality of the election laws. Read more here
Two scammers on exit list as US concerned about police links to lottery underworld
Describing extradition as a powerful anti-crime tool, a senior United States law-enforcement official said that two Jamaican players in multimillion-dollar lottery scams were now involved court proceedings locally and could be sent abroad for trial...Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
As Covid sweeps India, experts say cases and deaths are going unreported
India, home to the world's worst ongoing coronavirus outbreak, has reported more than 17.6 million cases since the pandemic began last year. But the real number, experts fear, could be up to 30 times higher -- meaning more than half a billion cases. Health workers and scientists in India have long warned that Covid-19 infections and related deaths are significantly underreported for several reasons, including poor infrastructure, human error, and low testing levels. Read more here
Israel committing crimes of apartheid and persecution – HRW
Israel is committing the crimes of apartheid and persecution against Arabs in the occupied territories and Israel itself, Human Rights Watch says. In a new report, it says Israel has a policy "to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians", including those who are its citizens. Apartheid amounts to state-sanctioned racial discrimination and is considered a crime against humanity. Israel's foreign ministry has rejected the report as "preposterous and false". It accused Human Rights Watch of having a "long-standing anti-Israeli agenda" and carrying out an ongoing campaign "with no connection to facts or reality on the ground". Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the report. "It is urgent for the international community to intervene, including by making sure that their states, organisations, and companies are not contributing in any way to the execution of war crimes and crimes against humanity," he said. Read more here
27th April 2021