Login to BlackFacts.com using your favorite Social Media Login. Click the appropriate button below and you will be redirected to your Social Media Website for confirmation and then back to Blackfacts.com once successful.
Enter the email address and password you used to join BlackFacts.com. If you cannot remember your login information, click the “Forgot Password” link to reset your password.
(Jamaica Gleaner) Jamaica is to make a decision within the next 72 hours on whether it will introduce travel restrictions on United Kingdom flights coming into the island as an aggressive new COVID-19 strain that is 70 per cent more contagious has emerged, with at least six European countries imposing barriers to entry.
The article Jamaica considers UK travel ban appeared first on Stabroek News.
South Africa is one of the hardest-hit countries in Africa with over 740,000 infections.
The country recorded 60 more virus-related deaths on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 20,011.
The mother and sister of a St Mary man have been charged with his murder.\tCharged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder are 63-year-old Leverana Forrester, otherwise called ‘Jemage’, and 32-year-old Ann-Marie Forrester, otherwise...
Total confirmed cases = 509
Total recoveries = 183
Total deaths = 21
Active cases = 305
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 29, 2020
May 26: Govt summons US envoy over virus advisories
\tThe Tanzanian government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week summoned the acting US ambassador over recent advisories relating to COVID-19.
The embassy in a May 13 advisory said the risk of virus contamination remained extremely high in Dar es Salaam and in other parts of the country.
His pronouncement is the latest in the Tanzania government’s posture towards a virus that has led to the imposition of lockdowns and enforcement of physical distancing in most African countries.
Regional commissioner Mrisho Gambo in a statement of May 20 said nineteen drivers who were declared positive by Kenya tested negative in Tanzania.
“In efforts to confirm reliability of COVID-19 test results, we took samples from 19 drivers from Tanzania who had tested and declared positive by Kenya authorities at Namanga border on Kenyan side.
Although Uganda began to relax some of the lockdown rules last week, including allowing private vehicles to return to the roads, the country faces an uphill ride back to economic normalcy, a wide-ranging survey by this newspaper shows.
Mr Jean Byamugisha, the chief executive officer of the Uganda Hotel Owners Association, an industry lobby group, estimates her 500 members across the country will lose about $900 million (about Shs3.4 trillion) to the pandemic and the resultant lockdown.
In his 14th address to the nation on Covid-19, President Museveni said: \"We have lost $1.6 billion from tourism and there is nothing we can do about that... \"
Apart from tourism, other economic sectors such as manufacturing, construction, trade, transport and services are also suffering from the economic slowdown.
A separate report presented to the Parliamentary Committee on National Economy by a segment of beverage manufacturers shows that the closure of bars, restaurants and social gatherings has already cost government at least Shs25 billion in revenue in the last three months alone.
In a survey by the Private Sector Foundation, a lobby group, 90 per cent of firms said they were uncertain about employment if the current situation did not improve in the next six months.
(Jamaica Gleaner) A custody battle for Jodian Fearon’s six-month-old daughter Peyton-Grace is threatening to inflict fresh wounds in the relationship between the deceased first-time mom’s loved ones even as they try to come to terms with her tragic passing under controversial circumstances in April.
The article Jamaica: Custody battle for Jodian Fearon’s baby appeared first on Stabroek News.
The Urban Development Corporation (UDC) says all attractions owned and operated by the state agency and its subsidiary, the St Ann Development Company, remain closed at this time.
However, the UDC says they are being readied for a safe reopening.
The UDC says it is, therefore, in the process of implementing measures such as physical distancing protocols, sanitisation stations, digitisation of services and staff training as it prepares to reopen to the public.
Frank McKoy, who leads the UDC Response and Recovery Task Force, said in a statement that “we are now presented with opportunities to use technology to reengineer UDC’s business operations within the context of the digital environment.”
The public is reminded that UDC-owned attractions are as follows:
Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica.
Rwanda's High Court on Thursday sentenced a former mayor to life in prison for his role in the country's 1994 genocide, which included leading attacks that resulted in the deaths of around 25 000 ethnic Tutsis in his town.
A statement from Rwanda's prosecution authority said the court \"convicted him for genocide, extermination as crime against humanity and rape as crime against humanity and sentenced him to life imprisonment.\"
Ntaganzwa was however \"not found guilty of murder as crime against humanity and direct and public incitement to commit genocide,\" the prosecution authority said.
Ntaganzwa - who had a $5-million US bounty on his head - was accused of organising \"the massacre of thousands of Tutsis at various locations,\" the UN-backed Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) said when he was arrested.
Ntaganzwa is the third suspect to be tried in Rwanda, after earlier genocide accused were tried by the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), based in Tanzania, which closed in 2015.
Travel regulations have been revised to make flying less cumbersome over the December holidays.
(Jamaica Gleaner) The Portland Municipal Corporation has been plunged into mourning following the passing of Irvin Brown, the councillor for the Fellowship division in Portland Eastern.
The article Jamaica: Portland councillor dies, test positive for COVID-19 appeared first on Stabroek News.
Limited resources and economic diversification in Eastern Caribbean countries, compounded by their small size and remoteness, constrain development.
While spending on health varies across the region (between three and seven per cent of GDP), Eastern Caribbean health systems perform substantially below the global average, forcing this region on the back foot as it tackles this health crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary for Caribbean countries to reassess their preparedness against a wider range of increasing risks – including health pandemics.
Accustomed to the impact from natural disasters, the Caribbean will not only need resilience against global warming but also against a new wave of health risks that threaten the lives and livelihoods of its citizens.
This is why the United Nations COVID-19 Multi-sectoral Response Plan and Funding Appeal for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean states was launched on the May 6 to support the region to tackle this crisis with resources it urgently needs.
(AP): Italy, today, registered 669 new cases of COVID-19, two-thirds of them in the northern region of Lombardy, which has been the hardest-hit since the outbreak began.
Officially, Italy has 32,735 deaths from COVID-19.
All of Italy’s regions, with the exception of Lombardy, registered no more than a few dozen new cases each on Saturday, and many regions had numbers of new infections in the single digits.
Eager to revive tourism, the government has said people will be allowed to resume travel between regions starting June 3, but travel restrictions could remain if there’s an up tick of infections.
Italy eased many stay-at-home restrictions on May 18, including allowing public masses to be held and restaurants and cafés to serve sit-down customers.
A man who the police recently listed among the island’s most wanted last week, appealing for information to find him, is dead and buried in Trinidad and Tobago, his family has confirmed. In a social media post on December 22, the Jamaica...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica is to make a decision within the next 72 hours on whether it will introduce travel restrictions on United Kingdom flights coming into the island as an aggressive new COVID-19 strain that is 70 per cent more contagious has...
As the US death toll from coronavirus topped 97,000, President Donald Trump was spending his Memorial Day weekend doing what he’d typically do during any other time off during his presidency — golfing and tweeting.
Trump, who frequently chided former President Barack Obama’s golf habit, defended his decision to head to the golf course over the weekend, after he said Joe Biden’s presidential campaign launched an ad about it.
What they didn’t say is that it’s the first time I’ve played golf in almost 3 months, that Biden was constantly (…) vacationing, relaxing & making shady deals with other countries, & that Barack was always playing golf,” part of Trump’s Sunday tweets said.
About an hour after Trump returned to the White House from his Virginia golf club on Sunday, the White House announced that the President had issued travel restrictions against Brazil, which has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus.
The President appears to have also spent a considerable amount of time online over the weekend, tweeting or retweeting content from others nearly 100 times over the course of two days on his @realDonaldTrump account.
BY WINSTONE ANTONIO ENVIRONMENT, Climate Change, Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu yesterday said the national tourism recovery and growth strategy launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in August this year will guide the sector going forward after the COVID-19-induced slowdown. Ndlovu made the remarks as this year’s edition of the Sanganai/Hlanganani – World Tourism Expo roared to life online due to the outbreak of coronavirus that has been declared a global pandemic. “The hosting of the virtual Sanganai/Hlanganani — World Tourism Expo marks the beginning of many such initiatives that seek to position our destination to the local, regional and international markets,” he said. Ndlovu said the uptake by both exhibitors and buyers at this year’s edition of the expo was impressive. He said the virtual exhibition would run concurrently with webinar discussions that sought to inform and educate the industry on key issues that will impact on capacity to recover and grow the sector. “The hosting of the virtual Sanganai/Hlanganani Expo is a much welcome development that is aimed at giving the industry a platform to interface with various source markets. I am told that as the virtual meetings commence this morning, the platform has allowed for pre-booking of meetings and I am certain that both parties will honour the appointments,” he said. Ndlovu said they were convinced that the return of regional and international flights marked the resumption of regional and international tourism. “Zimbabwe opened its borders to international travel via our international airports as of October 1 and we are looking at the gradual reopening of land borders in due course. We will constantly keep the markets informed of any developments that will affect their travel plans through our website and social media platforms,” he said. “International, regional and domestic flights have resumed in three of our major airports. Currently to safeguard our travellers and our tourism champions, visitors are expected to provide a negative PCR test on arrival, taken no longer than 48 hours before the time of flight departure.” He said quarantine for arrivals was not mandatory if the PCR test requirements have been fulfilled. “Any arrival that does not fulfil the PCR test requirements will be subject to testing on arrival and mandatory quarantine while awaiting results. The results take at most 48 hours,” he said. “While we have started taking baby steps towards recovery, it is a journey that we cannot undertake on our own, hence we celebrate the hosting of the virtual Sanganai/Hlanganani expo as it has brought us together to collectively work in mapping the way forward.” He said his ministry remained open to both local and international partners who have solutions that will see Zimbabwe emerge as a must-visit destination post the pandemic. “I am certain that with everyone’s involvement we are able to turn what has been a dark period for our sector into a resilient, vibrant and thriving industry to a reality,” he said.
(Jamaica Gleaner) In what has been tagged an unduly harsh sentencing, a Jamaican man has been imprisoned for six months in Barbados for breaking quarantine; while influential tourists flouting the COVID-19 protocols, when caught are reportedly given time to pay fines instead of imprisonment.
The article Lawyers fighting for Jamaican man imprisoned in Barbados for breaking quarantine appeared first on Stabroek News.
The police say they are investigating the circumstances surrounding an incident captured in a video being circulated, showing policemen in confrontation with two members of the public. The video shows a man hurling expletives...
'The Selling of Joseph,' a sermon by white clergyman Samuel Sewall, first published in Boston in 1700, became the first public anti-slavery treatise. Liberty, he wrote, being 'The real value unto life; none ought to part with it themselves or deprive others of it but upon mature consideration.' A strong anti-slavery treatise for its time, Sewall's writing provoked slaves in Boston to mount a determined effort to obtain their freedom.
THE COVID-19 Health and Safety Protocols designed for Jamaica by the Ministry of Tourism have been endorsed by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).
Word of the international organisation's approval of the protocols came yesterday as Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett and his team prepared for a news conference scheduled for today to launch the 110-page document.
“The protocols developed by the ministry have been globally recognised as being a leader in tourism COVID-19 management arrangements, and shows that when fully complied with will make Jamaica among the most COVID-19-resilient destinations in the world,” a beaming Bartlett told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.
“The document outlines protocols that must be adhered to as part of the local tourism industry's commitment to keep employees, local communities, and tourists safe from risks related to COVID-19,” a ministry source told the Observer, adding that “as medical research advances or the risk profile related to COVID-19 changes, protocols will be revised.”
The protocols are designed to support consistent standards across the industry and represent the joint requirements of the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Health and Wellness, Jamaica Tourist Board, and the Tourism Product Development Company Limited.
(Jamaica Gleaner) Hundreds of vacationers hoping to return to Canada are now stranded in Jamaica after new rules requiring them to show proof of a negative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test in order to enter the country came into effect on January 7.
The article Canadians in limbo in Jamaica over COVID test requirement appeared first on Stabroek News.
(Jamaica Gleaner) Sagicor Group Jamaica Limited took a $5-billion hit on its investment securities, which led to lower profit in the March quarter.
If you take those out, then our revenues increased by 15 per cent or $3.05 billion,” said Sagicor Group President and CEO Christopher Zacca.
Two of Sagicor’s four business segments posted lower profit: the employee insurance benefits line, down from $1.26 billion to $1 billion; and commercial banking, down from $364 million to $131 million due to loan loss provisions.
Outside the group’s core insurance and financial activities, Sagicor absorbed an $800-million impairment on its tourism assets due to the closure of hotels brought on by the pandemic, said Zacca.
Sagicor Group plans to proceed with the payment of a dividend at 40 cents per share to shareholders owning one per cent less of the company, but Zacca says the distributions await the approval of large owners.
Fatalities from COVID-19 in Jamaica are climbing closer to 300, following the confirmation of two more deaths from the disease yesterday. \tThe number of deaths from the infectious disease is now 285. \tThe Ministry of Health and...
The Westmoreland police are seeking the help of the public to identify and find the man pictured above who is a suspect in a fraud investigation.\tHe has been linked to a case of obtaining money by false pretence.\tInvestigators say a...
(Jamaica Gleaner) With a single Caribbean country yet to receive any vial of the COVID-19 vaccine released a month ago, Prime Minister Andrew Holness says big countries are hoarding the precious medicine.
The article Jamaica PM says rich countries hoarding COVID-19 cure appeared first on Stabroek News.
Dr. Mayme Clayton was born in Arkansas and transplanted to California, where she served as law librarian at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), beginning in 1957. In 1969 she helped put together the university’s African American Studies Center Library. But her most astounding achievement was an entirely independent one. For forty years, she collected the artifacts of African American history. She bought books and photographs, dance programs and recordings. She found these treasures in used book stores, flea markets, yard sales, and even the dump. She was a woman who knew that an object’s value–its real value–is not determined by society at large, but by our continuing need for truth. She saved what others discarded as worthless, and today we all owe her a great debt.
Dr. Clayton is one of the most visible of the heroes of black visual history, but there are others. For a long time, the institutions we depend on for the preservation of history–state archives and museums, historical societies, and other guardians of historical documents and artifacts–failed pretty miserably to do their job. Until a few decades ago, curators were almost exclusively white men who were limited in their thinking by the prejudices and ignorance of the culture they lived in. They simply didn’t value the evidences of black history in the West. And in many cases, these guardians of our collective past were influenced by racial hostility to erase or bury the truth. The result is that, as American Heritage magazine put it, “The African-American past is an iceberg, still 90 percent submerged. . . . [S]o much material remains in family hands or lies piled in the unvisited attics and basements of libraries, newspapers, and even police stations . . .”
In the past, then, the job of collecting and preserving the visual history of the black west fell into the hands of individuals of vision and commitment. Dr. Clayton was not the sole warrior in the battle to do the job of gathering and preserving. Dr. Currie Ballard, of Langston
