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(The Center Square) – There were nearly 243,000 illegal border crossers reported in January nationwide, according to new data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They include 176,205 illegal border crossers along the southwest border. The majority, 124,220, were apprehended between ports of entry. The remainder were apprehended at ports of entry (marine and […]
The post Nearly 243,000 illegal border crossers reported in January appeared first on The Black Chronicle.
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.
Volusia County’s second and final public hearing on the budget and tax rates for the 2020- 21 fiscal year will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 6 p.m. The budget and tax rates already underwent a first public hearing on Sept. 15. The final hearing had been scheduled for Sept. 29, at 6 p.m. […]
The post Volusia County’s final budget hearing set for Oct. 6 appeared first on Daytona Times.
A total of 3,300 employees in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector have regained their jobs, which were lost as a result of the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Despite this, we managed to retain more than 33,000 workers in the sector and are moving to see how best we can retrieve [the] jobs [that were lost] due to the measures imposed to curb the spread of the virus,” he said.
Vaz further pointed out that in aiding the recovery of the sector, the Government has already extended the work-from-home arrangements for approximately 40 per cent of the call centre agents for three months, which will end on August 31.
Turning to the growth trajectory for the sector, Vaz noted that pre-COVID, an increase of 5,000 to 6,000 jobs each year was predicted.
Vaz said it is anticipated that the sector will rebound by the end of the 2021 fiscal year, “with a move towards the original projection of 50,000 jobs by March 2022”.
Three staff members of the Baroombar strip club in Georgetown were arrested and questioned after the police carried out a recent raid at the property and found 24 non-national women, many of whom have overstayed their time here.
The article Cops raid Baroombar strip club appeared first on Stabroek News.
Africans and other foreign nationals in South Africa suffer “routine” harassment and lethal violence by locals and government authorities, a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. In the 64-page report, HRW said foreigners are scapegoated and blamed for economic insecurity, crimes, and government failures to deliver services. Also, the report said foreigners have...
The post A year after SA launched plan to combat xenophobia, foreigners still 'live in constant fear' appeared first on Face2Face Africa.
Jacksonville: Florida’s Governor Ron Desantis faced a mountain of red ink as the affects of the Lockdown hit Florida. Over a billion dollars in appropriations were slashed in Fiscal Year 2020. Duval Leaders of Tomorrow was spared. DLT as it is called serves under privileged students at Grand Park and Mattie V. Rutherford (2 of Jacksonville’s Notorious Alternative Schools). Groover’s []
• An ordinance to amend the levy provisions of the Code of Ordinances for the purpose of changing the ad valorem tax rates for personal property, bond indebtedness, parks, school operations/debt and special tax districts, and provide that those rates remain fixed for one year in compliance with the City Code.
• A resolution urging the City of Atlanta and the Georgia General Assembly to adopt policies to implement comprehensive police reform.
An item was introduced to be considered during a special called meeting scheduled for Friday, June 19 at 11 a.m. to consider and adopt the City of Atlanta’s 2021 Fiscal Year budget: • A resolution declaring the intention of the Atlanta City Council to create the Public Safety and Community Support Restricted Fund and requesting that the chief operating officer produce a report of recommendations regarding the City’s approach to public safety, including recommendations for systematic changes in police policies, reinventing the culture of policing in the city and being a model for public safety for cities across the nation, to be provided to the Atlanta City Council by no later than Dec. 1, 2020.
• A resolution requesting the Department of Transportation Commissioner create a participatory engagement process with the community to select a street where a permanent “Black Lives Matter” mural commissioned by members of the Atlanta City Council may be installed to commemorate the “Black Lives Matter” movement in the city of Atlanta.
• A resolution approving a deployment plan for funds allocated for rental assistance through the consumer grant program in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) the chief policy-making body for the City of Atlanta.
MP Théogène Munyangeyo, Chairperson of the Committee, said that agriculture received only 1.5 per cent of the total loans provided by commercial banks in Rwanda in the 2018/2019 financial year.
\"We cannot expect fostered development when a sector which employs for about 70 per cent of the population only gets 1.5 percent of loans offered in the country [by commercial banks],\" he said.
MP Munyangeyo pointed out that the agriculture sector accounted for 13.3 per cent of long-term loans from BRD, while 59 per cent of them went to financing infrastructures, and 16.1 percent was channelled to energy projects.
Munyangeyo said that the agriculture sector is important to the country's economy as the 2018/2019 activity report by the central bank indicated that the sector contributed 29 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Munyangeyo said that during the discussions between the Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, it was indicated that the livestock sector has potential to increase output than agriculture (crop value chain) as the former registered an average growth of 14 percent in the last four years compared to the latter which grew by 4.6 percent in the fiscal year 2018/2019.
The estimated gross earnings from tourism for the fiscal year 2021/2022 are projected at US$1.87 billion, with corresponding visitor arrivals of 1.6 million, according to Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett.He was addressing Wednesday's sitting of the Standing Finance Committee, which is reviewing the 2021/22 Estimates of Expenditure.
NASHVILLE — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee offered a cautious message of hope Monday in a state drastically upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, unveiling his administration’s top legislative priorities and spending plan for the upcoming year to lawmakers. In his third annual State of the State speech, the Republican focused heavily on his administration’s response to […]
THE Portland leg of the Southern Coast Highway Improvement Project is continuing at a fast pace despite a $6.6-billion cut in the amount the Government allocated to spend on the massive road programme this fiscal year.
The big ticket items reduced were the amount allocated for the acquisition of land, which has been cut by $2.2 billion, while $4.1 billion has been slashed from the amount allocated for fixed assets for the work, which covers the rehabilitation of approximately 110 kilometres of road between Harbour View in St Andrew and Port Antonio in Portland, and the 26-kilometre thoroughfare from Morant Bay to Cedar Valley in St Thomas.
So far, work has started on the corridor from Audley Crossing in St Thomas to Long Road in Portland, and the road from Manchioneal to Fair Prospect, where preparation — including the clearing of land to widen the roadway, cutting down of overhanging trees, and the gathering of stones to construct retaining walls — is in progress.
“The section from Audley Crossing to Long Road will see a complete rehabilitation for that section of the roadway, construction of adequate drainage, and the installation of new water pipes,” Daryl Vaz, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, told the Jamaica Observer.
“The corridor from Hectors River to Port Antonio will be fully rehabilitated and fitted with new drainage, new retaining wall, where necessary, construction of new bridges, and installation of new pipelines,” added Vaz.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Amid nationwide unrest and a global pandemic that wrecked the state budget, Tennessee lawmakers advanced one of the strictest abortion bans in the country as most Tennesseans were asleep Friday and largely unaware the GOP-dominant General Assembly had taken up the controversial proposal.
The bill’s passage shocked Democratic lawmakers and reproductive rights advocates who had been assured for weeks that the anti-abortion measure would not be considered in the Senate.
Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights — the plaintiffs in the case — declared that Tennessee was the first state to pass an abortion ban since the coronavirus outbreak hit the United States.
Also tucked in Tennessee’s 38-page bill is a requirement that women seeking an abortion undergo an ultrasound and have the doctor describe and display the image to her.
After George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked nationwide protests and unrest, Tennessee Republicans stirred more outrage locally by spiking a resolution this week for Ashanti Nikole Posey, a Black teen shot and killed this year.
Communities, activists, city leaders, social justice organizations and police departments represent groups that are making their stance heard on how systemic and structural racism perpetuates recurring police violence against African Americans.
It’s two things: shaving the police budget and redistributing funds to open better and equitable pathways for African-American people; and investigate policies, patterns and practice.
While today’s demands are not new calls to action, Memphis city leaders seem to be cooperating with requests to examine the current culture, strategies and priorities of the Memphis Police Department (MPD).
As the call to defund the police grows louder, it is apparent that those calls want funds and resources invested in African-American communities to close gaps in economic security, education and ownership.
The time is now for city leadership and citizens at every level of engagement to acknowledge the need for a model to advance Memphis and maintain momentum that does not leave the majority of African-American residents outpaced, undervalued and without fair access or representation to generate sustainable opportunities for themselves, their families or communities.
To accommodate those in need, the organization transformed its parking lot in order to provide employment services, housing work, education counselors, access to phones and computers, and making sure young people felt connected.
Although the homeless services authority put more people in housing in the past year, the number of people falling into homelessness over the same period continued to exceed the rate at which people were being housed.
Carmichael said My Friend’s Place is a place for young people to feel safe and to belong and to reimagine how adults and providers community and systems might be able to help them achieve their goals and dreams and be the adults they aspire to be.
Through its transformative education program, Carmichael said My Friend’s Place, which does not have a physical housing facility, offers everything from arts education, to employment, employment training, access to supplies, support to go back to school, and skills building.
Carmichael measures the success of My Friend’s Place by the trust young people have for adults.
The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has torn apart Treasury's budget for the new financial year that starts in July, arguing that it has mixed up priorities and lacks a stimulus package to jump-start the economy.
In its latest report dated May 2020, “Unpacking the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for 2020/2021 and the Medium Term”, the budget office has also raised concerns that the Treasury has left the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic to well-wishers, which is not sustainable.
“Indeed, except for a Sh2.6 billion allocation towards mass testing of patients under the Kenya Covid-19 Emergency Response Project, the health budget remains more or less the same with only slight upward adjustments probably to cater for inflationary trends,” the report asserts.
“Though the Covid-19 Fund is an important intervention particularly with regard to raising resources, it may not be sustainable and should not be relied on solely to mitigate the impact of the crisis,” the report says, adding that the national budget must play its part.
For the next phase of recovery, the report says, the 2020/2021 budget should have also included measures to jump-start the economy as the health crisis wears off rather than leaving the recovery to market dynamics.
The Baltimore City Council responded loud and clear June 15, presenting a $3.8 billion dollar budget for the 2021 fiscal year with over $22 million in proposed cuts to the Baltimore Police Department (BPD).
“Many of the young people who have led the protests and demonstrations here in Baltimore have been demanding that we finally think about investing in their future, rather than simply investing in their failure,” said City Council President Brandon Scott.
BPD Director of Public Affairs and Community Outreach Lindsey Eldridge sent the AFRO a statement in response to a request for an interview and said the department is holding off on live interviews until Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young approves the proposed cuts.
“The Baltimore Police Department is committed to ensuring that we work with the city council so they fully understand any and all ramification[s] of proposed cuts to the department,” read the statement sent to the AFRO.
Scott suggested the BPD merge their marine units with the Baltimore City Fire Department’s marine units.
Members of Parliament (MPs) have expressed concerns over the government proposal to slash spending on agriculture by 35 per cent, saying that the move would affect farm productivity.
In proposal to reduce government spending on agriculture is contained in the draft budget for the 2020/21 fiscal year, which will begin on July 1, 2020
Under the draft budget the government plans to spend Rwf90.4 billion on agriculture, which reflects a 35 per cent reduction from the Rwf140.3 billion that the sector was allocated to in the current 2019/2020 fiscal year .
The MPs made their concerns known on Wednesday, May 27, during budget hearing session where the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources as well as its affiliated agencies explained the government decision.
Gerardine Mukeshimana, the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, said that \"in the current budget, about Rwf1 billion is being used to raise and rehabilitate the dyke at Rurambi Marshland in order to prevent spilling Akagera waters from destroying people's farms and crops.\"
Minister Mukeshimana said that the government is working on extending access to the agriculture insurance coverage so that more farmers get protected from future losses stemming from crop damage by natural disasters such as floods.
Rwanda has slashed gorilla permits by between 60 percent and 80 percent as the government endeavours to revive the tourism sector adversely hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Domestic tourism and international tourism for visitors travelling with charter flights (individuals and groups) will resume.
In order to cushion tour companies, government has waived pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax, until December, for employees operating in the tourism and hospitality sector earning up to Rwf150,000 ($160) as net salary.
Rwanda had all but given up on domestic tourism when gorilla permits were doubled to $1,400 to focus on high-end foreign tourists, with officials justifying the raise by pointing to the critically insignificant number of domestic tourists.
But under the national economic recovery plan developed last month, boosting domestic tourism is cited as a key strategy that can help to ease the long pandemic recovery period.
On 23 December 2020, the Auditor General’s report on the audit of the public accounts for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2019 was laid in the National Assembly.
The article The 2019 Auditor General’s Report (Part II) appeared first on Stabroek News.
National name: Republique du Benin
Languages: French (official), Fon and Yoruba (most common vernaculars in south), tribal languages (at least six major ones in north)
Ethnicity/race: Fon and related 39.2%, Adja and related 15.2%, Yoruba and related 12.3%, Bariba and related 9.2%, Peulh and related 7%, Ottamari and related 6.1%, Yoa-Lokpa and related 4%, Dendi and related 2.5%, other 1.6% (includes Europeans), unspecified 2.9% (2002 census)
Religions: Catholic 27.1%, Muslim 24.4%, Vodoun 17.3%, Protestant 10.4% (Celestial 5%, Methodist 3.2%, other Protestant 2.2%), other Christian 5.3%, other 15.5% (2002 census)
National Holiday: National Day, August 1
Literacy rate: 42.4% (2010)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2013 est.): $16.65 billion; per capita $1,600. Real growth rate: 5%. Inflation: 2.4%. Unemployment: n.a. Arable land: 22.48%. Agriculture: cotton, corn, cassava (tapioca), yams, beans, palm oil, peanuts;livestock. Labor force: 3.662 million; Industries: textiles, food processing, construction materials, cement. Natural resources: small offshore oil deposits, limestone, marble, timber. Exports: $1.108 billion (2013 est.): cotton, cashews, shea butter, textiles, palm products, seafood. Imports: $1.835 billion (2013 est.): foodstuffs, capital goods, petroleum products. Major trading partners: India, China, U.S., France, Niger, Nigeria, Malaysia, Lebanon (2012).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 156,700 (2012); mobile cellular: 8.408 million (2012). Broadcast media; state-run Office de Radiodiffusion et de Television du Benin (ORTB) operates a TV station with multiple channels giving it a wide broadcast reach; several privately-owned TV stations broadcast from Cotonou; satellite TV subscription service is available; state-owned radio, under ORTB control, includes a national station supplemented by a number of regional stations; substantial number of privately-owned radio broadcast stations; transmissions of a few international broadcasters are available on FM in Cotonou (2007). Internet hosts: 491
Contingency grant funds are available for fiscal year 2020-21 programs in Volusia County that serve children and the community. The total funding available for unique public services is $79,567. Programs that serve the community and do not fit within the following categories are eligible to apply: services for persons with disabilities, services for seniors, youth []
The post Contingency funds available for children and community programs appeared first on Daytona Times.
Two of the three foreign nationals who were held on Sunday at 9 Miles Airstrip, Issano, Middle Mazaruni River, where they claimed they crash landed, were yesterday charged with entering the country illegally.
The article Claimed crash landing survivors on illegal entry charges appeared first on Stabroek News.
HEALTH Minister Hamad Rashid Mohamed has asked the House of Representatives to approve the renaming of envisaged Binguni Referral and Teaching Hospital after President Ali Mohamed Shein.
\"President Shein has done a commendable job towards the improvement of public health service delivery in the country; it's my sincere proposal to this House to grant the renaming of the modern Binguni facility after our beloved leader,\" Minister Hamad implored members of the House.
The revolutionary government had since the 2018/2019 financial year been allocating funds to the construction of the state-of-the art hospital in the Unguja South region's Central District, with 3.97bn/- disbursed for the initial project execution.
\"The government has in good faith opted to use a government owned contractor, which involves engineers and other professionals from special departments, in implementing the project,\" Mr Hamad said, justifying the use of the public contractors as cost effective.
The hospital project has also appeared prominently in the ministry's 2020/2021 priorities under the 51,258,210,000/- curative programme whose other key activities include construction of workers' houses at Abdalla Mzee hospital, massive renovations at Wete hospital and procurement of drugs, medical equipment and reagents.
Herman Mashaba has weighed in on the situation at the Beitbridge border, as swathes of South Africans demand that the crossing must close.
Sheila Sealy Monteith, Jamaica's ambassador to Belgium and permanent representative to the European Union — who also has accreditation to France, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain — confirmed to the Jamaica Observer that plans are far advanced to have a charter flight leave Amsterdam on Saturday and arrive in Kingston early Sunday morning.
This confirmed a recent tweet from Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith, who urged Jamaicans in Europe wanting to come home to book the flight.
One Jamaican in an e-mail to Sealy Monteith indicated that, while she was looking forward to the first flight coming into the island from Europe since the borders were closed on March 24, she is worried that it is landing in Kingston where there are more positive COVID-19 cases than in Montego Bay.
On Monday, officials of the Ministry of National Security said they were unable to provide details on the scheduled flight from Amsterdam, but confirmed that discussions are under way to bring Jamaicans home from several countries.
Last week, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of National Security Matthew Samuda told the Senate that more than 22,000 applications to travel to Jamaica have been received through two portals registering requests from Jamaicans wanting to return home and potential visitors since May.
