Published 20 April
Buckie Got It…HAPPENING NOW !!! Prime Minister Dr Hon Timothy Harris joins Senior Minister and Nevis Premier Vance Amory and other Cabinet Colleagues at the Historic unveiling of the Bust of the Rt Excellent Dr. Sir Simeon Daniel in Charlestown, Nevis
Published 20 April 2017
The above were found by a squad of SKNDF soldiers while on patrol on Nevis this morning:
1 x Smith and Wesson revolver
1 x 357 Magnum pistol with 10 rounds and
1x Tech 9 machine pistol with an extended magazine and 21 9mm rds.
Also recovered were: 19 7.62mm rds of ammo.
A transparent bag containing vegetable substance believed to be cannabis and
A vendetta mask.
Six persons were held and handed over to the police.
Published 19 April 2017
Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 19, 2017 (SKNIS): The Department of Environment recognizes climate variability and climate change to be two of the most significant threats to sustainable development in St. Kitts and Nevis. Against this backdrop, a number of persons from various fields throughout the federation are currently attending an eight day National Training Workshop in the Use of Climate Models for Decision Making.
The workshop, which runs from April 19-28, is held under the auspices of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center (CCCCC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
June Hughes, Senior Environment Officer at the Department of Environment, said that the training is timely, as climate change continues to be a clear and present danger. She noted that the department is working closely with regional and international partners to ensure that persons are aware of the dangers that exist.
“We in the Department of Environment have been working to raise awareness on the impacts of climate change, while taking advantage of every capacity building opportunity to improve our adaptive response have strengthened our mitigation measures,” she said. “Each training, workshop and meeting strengthens our country to address and reduce the impacts of climate change.”
Dr. Ulric Trotz, Deputy Executive Director at CCCCC, explained that the workshop would first be rolled out nationally in all 10 countries under the USAID banner, after which regional workshops will be held. He made mention of specific training tools that were developed with the aim of assisting in the generation of scientific information and analysis to help in making informed decisions. These include the Weather Generator (WG), the Tropical Storm Model/ Simple Model for the Advection of Storms and Hurricanes (SMASH), and the Caribbean Drought Assessment Tool (CARiDRO).
“The CARIWIG [Caribbean Weather Impacts Group] tool is a critical tool in that it more or less localizes the projection so that for instance, you can actually look at climate projections for the future in a watershed in St. Kitts and Nevis. It localizes that information and it makes it much more relevant to the local circumstance,” said Dr. Trotz.
The deputy executive director encouraged participants to acquire all the knowledge necessary, as it is the presenters hope that at the end of the training “a cadre of technical skills” would be developed in St. Kitts and Nevis and the region on whole that would help to deal successfully with the challenges faced from climate change.
Training and application of the tools will allow decision-makers to better understand the potential impacts of drought, tropical storms, and rainfall and temperature changes. When combined with other data and information, they can help to build a picture of potential impacts to key economic sectors in the country. The training will target key personnel whose focus are in areas of agriculture, water resources, coastal zone management, health, physical planning or disaster risk reduction.
Published 19 April 2017
Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 19, 2017 (SKNIS): The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis has positioned itself to address some environmental challenges, in particular, global warming, in an effort to improve informed decisions on issues like climate change, said Alistair Edwards, Permanent Secretary in the Department of Environment.
Speaking at the opening ceremony for the National Training Workshop in the Use of Climate Models for Decision Making on Wednesday, April 19, the permanent secretary said that climate change affects everyone, therefore, the Department of Environment “will continue to undertake various adaptation and mitigation actions to ensure that St. Kitts and Nevis builds its resilience to reduce the impacts on climate change.”
Mr. Edwards said that St. Kitts and Nevis is very vulnerable to adverse impacts of climate change, as it can be seen in a number of sectors across the federation.
“Sectors such as tourism, agriculture, water, and health and by extension the entire nation, have already been impacted in one way or another by these adverse factors. In response to the current projects it impacts, it is important that St. Kitts and Nevis undertake various initiatives that will reduce risk and the risk of our natural assets from climate change,” said the permanent secretary, while adding that St. Kitts and Nevis recognizes that climate change impacts the sustainability of not only the federation, but also the region.
“For a country like St. Kitts and Nevis, our critical infrastructure lies on coastal zones. Therefore, it is immensely important that measures and actions are put in place to protect our beaches and coastlines. We must implement measures that ensure food security, public health, the availability of fresh and potable water are not impacted,” he said.
PS Edwards made specific mention of the national training workshop, noting that the Department of Environment sees it as an ideal opportunity to build work that has already started. He explained that adaptation is critically important to St. Kitts and Nevis, and as such, it should be made a priority.
“We need to identify and implement adaptation measures in a collaborative manner. We need to ensure that the decision makers have access to the most effective tools and methods that can help them integrate climate change into planning and investment processes,” said Mr. Edwards. “The approach of tackling adverse impacts of climate change requires the support of all us. Our planet is dependent on it and our very existence is depending on it.”
Published 18 April 2017
St Kitts and Nevis (WINN): With Team Unity just past two years into its first term of office, there is no general election on the horizon at the moment.
However there appears to be a battle of the public opinion polls raging in the federation.
Citing a newly conducted Don Anderson poll, the governing Team Unity coalition says the results show that if an election were to be held now, Prime Minister Timothy Harris and his Government of National Unity would be re-elected to serve for another five-year term.
However the Denzil Douglas-led opposition St Kitts Nevis Labour Party is also making a similar claim, based, it says on a Bill Johnson poll the SKNLP commissioned.
“The conclusion is that if an election were called today, the electorate would vote strongly in support of Douglas and the Labour Party to replace Harris and the Team Unity government” the Labour Party quotes its commissioned public opinion poll as concluding.
The Don Anderson poll, released earlier than Labour’s Bill Johnson’s poll shows, the coalition says, that Team Unity would expand its constituency count, adding to the seven seats that its candidates won during the February 16th, 2015 general election.
Labour is countering that its Bill Johnson poll gives Party leader Douglas, the country’s opposition leader, a more favourable rating than Prime Minister Timothy Harris.
According to an SKNLP release, Dr Douglas enjoys a 67 per cent favourability rating compared to a 34 per cent rating for Dr Harris.
It says too, on the question of who would do a better job going forward, that “61.4% were convinced that Douglas would do a better job, 23.2% thought that Harris would, and 13.2% were undecided”.
The Don Anderson poll is said to have questioned 506 registered voters in the federation’s eleven constituencies, while 1100 likely voters are reported to have been polled in the Bill Johnson public opinion poll.
Don Anderson of Marketing Research Services Limited in Jamaica is a well known pollster in the region.
Bill Johnson too, is a Jamaica-based veteran pollster.
