Category: CANA News

West Indies Women were dismissed for 139 in 39.3 overs after electing to bat against Zimbabwe Women in the second Women’s One Day International at the Harare Sports Club here on Sunday.

WEST INDIES WOMEN 139 in 39.3 overs (Stafanie Taylor 47, Hayley Matthews 26, Ashmini Munisar 20 not out, Afy Fletcher 15; Nyasha Gwanzura 4-33, Michelle Mavunga 3-36, Francisca Chipare 2-16).

Persistent water shortages across parts of this British overseas territory are forcing some residents to find alternative ways to meet basic household needs, with reports that people on the island of Jost Van Dyke have resorted to bathing in the sea.

The issue was raised during a recent Kross Talk podcast interview with National Democratic Party candidate for the Third Electoral District, Aaron Parillon.

Host Tyler Levons said he had seen reports that the water situation on Jost Van Dyke had deteriorated to the point where some residents were using seawater for bathing.

‘I saw in Jost Van Dyke, where it got so bad that members of the community resorted to bathing in the seawater,’ Levons said.

Similar claims have surfaced on social media, while Second District Representative Melvin ‘Mitch’ Turnbull has also previously told the House of Assembly that some residents on Jost Van Dyke had turned to the sea because of water shortages.

Parillon said the problem extends beyond Jost Van Dyke, with residents in parts of the Third District sometimes going without running water for weeks.

‘Some specific parts of my community are without water for a month, sometimes two weeks, sometimes three weeks,’ he said.

He said the shortages create particular difficulties for women, elderly residents and families with newborn babies, and added that he has been using his personal truck for about a year to help residents transport buckets and gallons of water to their homes.

‘We all need water to bathe,’ Parillon said, describing the situation as ‘very disappointing.’

He argued that the territory should not be struggling to provide such a basic service given the size of its economy.

The government has acknowledged that the territory’s ageing water network has suffered from years of underinvestment and says repairs and upgrades are under way.

Approximately US$2.8 million is being invested in water infrastructure, including new pipelines in Sea Cows Bay, improvements to the Ridge Road transmission system and the rehabilitation of several reservoirs.

The government is also advancing plans to merge the Water and Sewerage Department with the BVI Electricity Corporation under the proposed Virgin Islands Energy and Water Corporation, VIEWCo.

Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith says the country does not use walkouts as part of its diplomatic approach at the United Nations, following questions about whether Jamaica joined delegates who left the General Assembly during an address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Dozens of delegates walked out as Netanyahu began his speech to the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly on Thursday, amid continuing criticism of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and the wider Middle East.

West Indies reached 295 for seven in 50 overs after being sent in by India in the opening One Day International at Greenfield International Stadium here on Sunday.

WEST INDIES 295-7 in 50 overs (Justin Greaves 101, John Campbell 62, Amir Jangoo 58 not out, Roston Chase 24, Keacy carty 13, Shai Hope 12; Kuldeep Yadav 4-40, Prasidh Krishna 2-60).

India defeated West Indies by eight wickets in the opening One Day International at Greenfield International Stadium here on Sunday.

Scores

WEST INDIES 295-7 in 50 overs (Justin Greaves 101, John Campbell 62, Amir Jangoo 58 not out, Roston Chase 24, Keacy carty 13, Shai Hope 12; Kuldeep Yadav 4-40, Prasidh Krishna 2-60).

INDIA 300-2 in 41.4 overs (Virat Kohli 139 not out, Shubman Gill 110, Rohit Sharma 32, Ruturaj Gaikwad 13 not out)

The son of a 76-year-old businessman who was gunned down while sitting on the patio of his home in May 2025 is among four people shot and killed here late Friday.

Police have not released the names of the deceased, but acting Assistant Commissioner of Police responsible for crime fighting, Brenton Smith, confirmed the deaths.

The senior police officer also confirmed that four people have been taken to hospital for medical attention, adding that they had what appeared to be gunshot wounds.

Multiple reliable sources have confirmed the names of the deceased as: Steve King, 22, self-employed, the son of murdered businessman Stephen King, also of Green Hill and fellow villagers Antonio Samuel, 30, and Shaqueil Peters, 26, as well as Paul’s Avenue resident Shevon Chandler, 23.

Meanwhile, a 20-year-old Green Hill woman received injuries to her right hand; a 17-year-old male student received injuries to his right arm, right leg and left hand; a 28-year-old man received injuries to his right arm; and a 16-year-old mechanic received injuries to his left thigh, right forearm and left hand.

They are all said to be in stable condition in hospital.

Smith said police were informed of the shooting around 10:30 p.m (local time).

The Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force can confirm that it appears that four persons were killed as a result of a shooting incident in the Green Hill area,’ Smith said, noting that the shooting took place ‘not too far from the hard court’.

He noted that the investigation was still ongoing even as he spoke just after midnight Friday, Sept. 25, with members of the Crime Investigation Unit processing the scene.

‘So you can understand the difficulties,’ Smith said, apparently referring to the limited information that he disclosed.

Haiti Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé says the French-speaking Caribbean country is at a ‘watershed moment’ in its struggle against gang violence, calling for sustained international support alongside stronger national security institutions.

In an addressing world leaders on Friday, during the 81st Session of the United Nations Debate, Fils-Aimé said criminal violence was threatening communities across the country, but insisted Haiti was neither defeated nor seeking to have others determine its future.

‘Haiti will resist. Haiti is standing tall,’ he said, urging the international community ‘not to save it, but to stand side by side with it, while it takes its own destiny into its own hands.’

The prime minister said the scale of violence, including massacres, displacement and attacks against women and children, demanded decisive action.

He paid tribute to victims, as well as Haitian and international security personnel, who have died serving the country, stressing that the human toll must not become simply another statistic.

Fils-Aimé said Haiti is strengthening its own security forces, including through a program to train 4,000 police officers.

He said more than 2,000 have already been trained, while over 1,500 new soldiers have completed training.

Fils-Aimé said the government also plans to train 15,000 additional soldiers over the next three years.

‘Our goal is not only to respond to the crisis of today,’ he said, but to build the capacity for Haiti to sustainably ensure its own security.

At the same time, Fils-Aimé expressed concern that the international force intended to support those efforts was still not fully operational or at its planned strength of 5,500 personnel.

He called for renewal of the mandate of the ‘gang suppression force’ and its full deployment with the personnel, equipment and resources required.

‘A mandate is not enough,’ he warned. ‘There’s a need for forces. Equipment is needed, and one needs to resolve to see the effort through.’

The prime minister also urged stronger international action against illicit weapons and ammunition trafficking, noting that the guns fueling violence in Haiti are arriving through transnational criminal networks.

As part of efforts to combat impunity, Fils-Aimé said the government has established two specialized judicial hubs addressing financial and mass crimes and sexual violence, while reactivating the national commission for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration.

At the same time, he said restoring security must go hand in hand with economic recovery and a return to democratic government through ‘free, credible, inclusive and honest elections’.

The prime minister said enrollment centers are open, political parties and groups have been accredited, and prospective candidates are completing formalities.

He also called for a fundamental shift in Haiti’s economic relationship with international partners.

‘We need to move from aid to investment, from assistance to production, from dependency to partnership,’ said Fils-Aimé, stating that investment and job creation, particularly for young people and women, are essential to lasting peace.

But, despite the enormity of the challenges, the Haitian prime minister was optimistic about the country’s future.

‘The challenges are colossal, but our willpower is even greater,’ he said. ‘Our generation now needs to let [the tree of liberty] bear the fruit of peace.’

On Thursday, in addressing a special meeting at the United Nations on the future of security in Haiti, Fils-Aimé claimed that Haitians can’t wait to return home and vote in forthcoming general elections.

The United Nations said that general elections in Haiti, which have been repeatedly delayed since 2019, are scheduled to be held on Dec.13, 2026.

‘There is [sic are] a people, a people who can wait no longer, a people waiting to regain security, to return home to work, to send their children to school, and to freely choose their leaders,’ Fils-Aimé said.

But the UN said armed gangs continue to ‘perpetrate widespread violence in the Caribbean state, where they regularly murder, rape and kidnap civilians.’

It said gangs now control large parts of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, and key transport corridors, hampering the transport of essential services and humanitarian assistance.

The UN said around 6.4 million people require humanitarian assistance in the French-speaking Caribbean country and that almost 1.5 million have been displaced.

As gangs source most of their weapons outside of Haiti, Fils-Aimé told the special UN meeting, hosted by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), that Haiti’s security depends on ‘our collective ability to combat the illicit flows that fuel violence: weapons, ammunition, trafficking, and transnational criminal networks.’

The UN said speakers at the meeting also expressed broad support for extending the mandate of a UN Security Council-backed force, the Gang Suppression Force (GSF).

‘The force aims to neutralize armed gangs, protect vital infrastructure, and allow humanitarian aid to enter,’ the UN said.

However, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, underscored that the mission is ‘severely under-deployed’, with only 1,083 personnel on the ground, instead of the 5,500 that were authorized by the UN.

He called for the mission to reach full deployment as early as possible.

At the same time, while expressing their thanks to their international community for its support, representatives of Haiti stressed that they wanted a ‘Haiti-centric response to the crisis to ensure a more sustainable peace’, according to the UN.

‘Haiti must ultimately rest on the capabilities of the Haitian state,’ said Fils-Aimé, insisting that security operations are only a first step in tackling the crisis.

‘The real test is whether we can hold those gains and translate them into lasting change for the Haitian population,’ he added. ‘When an area becomes accessible again, the State and basic services need to follow: police and local authorities, but also schools, justice institutions and economic activity.’

The prime minister said Haiti is strengthening its security forces by training and recruiting more police officers and soldiers.

He also said that two specialized Haitian judicial units are helping fight against impunity, financial crime, mass atrocity, crimes and sexual violence.

The UN said a key priority raised at the meeting was ensuring that children, including those recruited or associated with gangs, receive adequate protection and support.

‘Protecting children from violence, from gang recruitment, while providing safe pathways for children associated with armed groups, must be a priority across our efforts,’ said ECOSOC President Amar Bendjama.

‘They need access to protection, to education, to essential services,’ he added. ‘They also need opportunities to build for themselves a safe and secure future.’

Ruiz Massieu, the UN’s most senior official in Haiti, said the priority to protect children should guide efforts to dismantle gangs and hold those responsible for serious crimes accountable, calling for ‘differentiated pathways’ for children associated with gangs.

The UN said it and others expressed strong support for children, stressing that they should be ‘credible, free, fair and inclusive.’

Fils-Aimé also expressed enthusiasm, stating that ‘Haiti’s next government must come through the ballot box.

‘Voting restores legitimacy, and legitimacy paves the way for stability,’ he said. ‘Today, the electoral process is well underway. Electoral operations have been launched. Citizens are registering. Political organizations have also been certified.’

West Indies Women’s all-rounder Aaliyah Alleyne believes once they stick to their gameplans they will be successful in their current ODI series against Zimbabwe Women.

West Indies Women took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series by winning Thursday’s opening ODI by 99 runs at the Harare Sports Club.

The two sides will meet again on Sunday at the same venue, with the visitors knowing that victory will help them clinch the series with a match to spare.

Alleyne starred with the ball in the opener, grabbing 3-44 to help bowl out the home side for 200 in pursuit of the Windies’ total of 299 for six.

Speaking ahead of their crucial encounter, Alleyne said the team knows what they have to do to be successful.

‘The conditions were good for batting, and we had discussed beforehand hitting our areas, hitting the deck hard and attacking the stumps.

‘I just think that once we stick to that plan and be patient, we will be successful,’ Alleyne said.

She maintained that even though the Windies were ranked seventh in the rankings, seven spots ahead of the 14th ranked Zimbabweans, they would not allow complacency to creep in.

Alleyne pointed to Modester Mupachikwa’s fighting knock of 86 in the first ODI, and said she expected the home side to come out guns blazing.

‘We’ve discussed not getting complacent. We know that partnerships are going to be built; the opening batter batted really well in batting right through the innings.

‘…So we have to try not to get too flustered. You’re going to get hit for a boundary or two, but we just have to stick to the team plan and enjoy it right through,’ Alleyne said.

US President Donald Trump on Saturday predicted that the US and Cuba will reach an agreement and he does not think military action will be necessary.

‘I would say that Cuba and us will make a deal. I don’t think we’ll need the military,’ Trump told reporters at the White House.

A US-imposed oil blockade implemented earlier this year has put the country under severe strain as it contends with fuel shortages and blackouts exacerbated by failing infrastructure.

The Trump administration has openly stated that its goal is to change Cuba’s government.’We want to help Cuba,’ Trump said . ‘We want to open Cuba up to our people.’

In an address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, the US president called Cuba a failed state and said ‘freedom will be coming’ to the island nation. The Cuban delegation walked out of the hall during that speech.

Shortly after the president’s spech, Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez said the island will always be open to dialogue with the United States.

‘We are open to commercial and business relationships with US companies, just as we are with any other country,’ said Rodriguez, while also strongly condemning a US trade embargo on Cuba.

The US has maintained the embargo on Cuba for more than 60 years and the Trump administration has been stepping up pressure after using the military in January to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Bahamian Prime Minister Philip E. Davis has called for an international rules-based order that is beneficial to all.

‘It is not the small states who are dismantling the rules-based order. Small countries cannot dismantle a rules-based world. But we will be the first to be crushed beneath its collapse,’ warned Davis in addressing the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly Debate on Friday.

‘Great powers can survive the end of the rules. Small states cannot. For us, a rules-based world is our shield.

‘The rules have not always been applied fairly,’ he added. ‘But the answer is not a world without rules. It is rules that bind the strong as firmly as the weak. International order, where rules apply only to the weak, is not order. It is a hierarchy.’

The prime minister said, when the Bahamas defends multilateralism, it is not defending a bureaucracy; it is defending ‘the only successful arrangement in which a nation of 400,000 people can stand at this podium as the sovereign equal of a nation of a billion people.

‘A world without rules is not a free world; it is Melos,’ he said, referring to the small island, where, 250, 000 years ago, the envoys of Athens stood before it ‘and told its people a simple truth about power: ‘The strong do what they can. The weak suffer what they must.’

Davis said the formation of the United Nations was the world’s answer to Melos.

‘I do not appeal to conscience. Small states have done that for decades. Today, I appeal to your interests,’ he said. ‘What is in your best interest? No wall is high enough to keep out rising warming seas. No border strong enough to stop a pandemic. Narrow self-interest asks what you can take today. Enlightened self-interest asks what kind of world you will have to live in tomorrow.’

The Bahamian Prime Minister said the international, rules-based order benefits all.

‘They are not arbitrary having been arrived at through lived experience,’ he said. ‘Every rule you break today is a rule you will need tomorrow. Every institution you starve is one you will one day call upon. Every small nation you abandon is a crisis you will one day inherit.

‘Defending the rules is not a favor to the small; it an insurance for the strong,’ he added.

Davis said nowhere is that truer than the climate crisis.

‘Here, too, we are told there is uncertainty,’ he said. ‘There is none. The sea does not negotiate. It does not read communiqués. And it does not recognize a veto.’

In 2024, he said, for the first time, the world was more than one and a half degrees warmer for an entire year.

‘The line which small island states fought to write into the Paris Agreement, has already been crossed,’ said Davis, pointing to a new report released only days ago, warning that the El Niño phenomenon, now heating the planet, is likely to cost some 450, 000 lives by next February.

He noted that, in 2019, Hurricane Dorian inflicted damage and losses on the Bahamas equal to roughly a quarter of its national output.

‘Families watched the sea take the only land they had,’ Davis said. ‘Most of my country sits barely above sea level. For us, a rising ocean is not a forecast. It is a boundary inching towards our doorsteps.’

He said that is why the Bahamas ‘proudly’ endorsed Thursday’s Declaration on Sea-Level Rise, which affirms that ‘our statehood, our boundaries and our seat in this Assembly will not be washed away by the sea.

‘The science is certain,’ the Bahamian leader said. ‘Last year, the International Court of Justice made clear that the law is also certain. The injustice is certain, too.

‘The people who bear least responsibility are asked to adapt first, pay more, and recover from disasters they did not cause,’ he added. ‘And the self-interest is certain. People who lose their homes do not disappear. They move, and they arrive at someone’s border. Prevention costs less than rebuilding or relocating.’

Davis said while the Bahamas is taking action, ‘no nation, acting alone, can hold back the tides.

‘Nor can we build resilience inside a financial system designed at Bretton Woods in 1944, which still declares us too prosperous to help, until the next storm makes us poor,’ he said. ‘The Vulnerability Index exists. The Loss and Damage Fund exist. What is missing is the power shift to make them operational and real.’

The Bahamian Prime Minister warned that the next contest for power will not only be fought over land and sea but will be fought over data.

‘Our citizens’ data crosses the world without a visa and without a vote,’ he said. ‘It leaves our shores as raw material, and returns as products we must buy.

‘We have seen this pattern before,’ he added. ‘My islands once exported salt, sponge and sisal. Others set the price. Others kept the profit. The commodity has changed. The pattern has not. This is colonization by data.

‘I am talking about the capacity of a people to govern their own digital lives,’ he continued. ‘People whose daily lives and histories are being mined, should decide where their data lives, who may use it and on what terms. Those people should be able to share in the value which their data creates.

‘It means building artificial intelligence that understands our languages, our laws and our lives, not only the lives of those in the wealthy North and dominate languages and cultures,’ Davis said. ‘And it means taking part in the digital age on our own terms, not as consumers of other people’s systems, but as builders of our own.’

The prime minister, therefore, asked the General Assembly to support the nomination of Stephen Bereaux for Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union.

Stating that five nations still hold a veto over the peace of 193 nations, Davis disclosed that the Bahamas is seeking a seat on the Security Council for the 2032-2033 term.

‘The Bahamas does not seek a seat on the Council to sit quietly inside that arrangement,’ he said. ‘We seek it to help change it: a Council that reflects the world as it is, and that gives small island states a dedicated seat at the table where our survival is decided.’

The Bahamian leader said change must also reach the leadership of the United Nations, stating that his country also supports the candidature of Guyana’s Ambassador to the UN, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, for secretary-general.

‘A former foreign minister who has presided over the Security Council, she understands what rules mean for nations with no other protection,’ he said. ‘In 81 years, this organization has had nine secretaries-general. All of them men. None has come from the Caribbean. The Bahamas believes the time has come for both to change.’

Davis also called for the lifting of the strengthened blockade against Cuba, an end to the fuel blockade, and Cuba’s removal from the unilateral list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism.

‘The Cuban people are suffering,’ he said. ‘We call on all states to respect Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.’

On Haiti, the Bahamian Prime Minister said it was ‘the first nation on Earth born from a successful revolt by enslaved people.

‘For that act of courage, it was made to pay,’ he said. ‘In 1825, under the guns of a foreign fleet, Haiti was compelled to compensate its former colonizers for its own freedom. It took Haiti more than a century and a half to pay that compensation.

‘If you want to see what sovereignty costs when it is only allowed, and never respected, look at Haiti,’ Davis added. ‘When the Security Council meets on the 30th of September, we urge it to renew the mandate under Resolution 2793, and to give the Gang Suppression Force the resources to deliver, in a partnership that respects Haitian sovereignty.’

He said that, this month, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) advanced its 10-Point Plan for reparatory justice, building on the General Assembly’s recognition, in March, of the trafficking and racialized enslavement of Africans, as crimes against humanity.

‘The wealth of empires was built on the stolen lives of our ancestors, including enslaved children,’ Davis said. ‘It is important that the former colonizers have recognized this atrocity, as recognition was a vital step.

‘But recognition without repair is only a sentence on a page,’ he added, calling on ‘the nations that profited to engage seriously with reparatory justice: truth, apology, restoration and development.’