Category Archives: Caribbean

We'll be the first to admit: Drinking a pia colada on your balcony will never be the same as sitting outside a bar in old San Juan, feeling the ocean breeze blow as you sip your cocktail mere blocks from the beach. But a strong Caribbean cocktail will sure get you closer to that canceled vacation than a whiskey sour will.

With temperatures starting to rise and warmer days ahead, mentally escaping to the Caribbean doesn't require the imagination it might have in December. Maybe you hit play on a little Cuban salsa, or turn up that Jamaican dancehall playlistmaybe you bring out those colorful tumblers you bought in Guadeloupe two years back, or decorate your table with woven coasters from Cartagena. Suddenly an ice cold rum punch or painkiler is more than just a strong drink, it's a virtual escape.

For days when you want to transport yourself to the Caribbean without leaving home, these easy-to-make drinks will help get you there. Read on for seven Caribbean cocktails every home bartender can mix, with tips from experts across the islands.

All products featured in this story are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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7 Caribbean Cocktails That Are Easy to Make at Home - Cond Nast Traveler

What its like to move your WFH setup to the Caribbean.

Ashley M. Hunter has stopped doing Zoom calls outside with the Atlantic Ocean to her back. It was making too many people jealous. The 41-year-old insurance executive has been working from Bermuda for the past seven months, thanks to a COVID-spurred residency program on the island.

Bermuda is one of a handful of spots in the Caribbean inviting gainfully employed international visitors to come and stay for a while. With few people going to an office every day, remote work possibilities have gone international.

Idyllic islands in the Atlantic Ocean, including Anguilla, Aruba, Barbados, the Cayman Islands have implemented temporary residency programs amid COVID-19 as a way to help keep the economies afloat while tourists stay home, waiting out the pandemic.

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If it sounds too good to be true, consider the barriers to entry: fairly high, nonrefundable application fees for many of the destinations; an annual income requirement for acceptancein Barbados, its $50,000, for the Cayman Islands, its $100,000 (along with a slew of other requirements); plus the cost of island living in addition to expenses attached to ones permanent residence.

In essence, many of these programs are turning the digital nomad lifestyle as we once knew it on its head. Participants arent international backpackers hoping to scrape by for as many months as possible on the road, hopping from one place to the next.

Glenn Jones, Bermuda Tourisms Interim CEO, says hes been surprised by the share of people on this program who are senior executives, directors on boards, owners of their own companies, founders of their own companies. It doesnt fit with his previous understanding of a digital nomad, but thats not necessarily a bad thing for the island.

What these digital nomads share with their predecessors, however, is a sense of community. A participant in Barbados Welcome Stamp program, Mita Carriman launched a community for digital nomads there called Bajan Nomad Social.

The former business and IP attorney isnt new to working remotely from cool locales around the world. Carriman, now CEO of Adventurely, tried on the digital nomad lifestyle in 2017, and since then has lived and worked in 13 different countries.

She spent six months in Barbados, the first country she ever visited with her Caribbean parents, and would recommend it to anyone, especially first-time nomads. Carriman, who has since moved on to Mexico, says Barbados was a bit on the expensive side but adds, It was worth it to experience the culture, safety, and perks around and about the island.

Like Hunter, Carriman has actually been working. She points out that digital nomads arent on vacation and for the most part are exceptionally responsible and disciplined people.

It was worth it to experience the culture, safety, and perks around and about the island.

Hunter, who says shes in the process of starting an insurance agency in Bermuda, says she chose the country because she thought it would be good for business. Her instincts were right, it was.

Likewise, for Georgia resident Kacie Darden, 37, taking part in Arubas One Happy Workation program meant moving her workplace to the sunny Caribbean island. The temporary set-up had Darden, the owner of boutique travel agency, Blue Pineapple Tours, and her twin six-year-olds maintaining a fairly similar work and school schedule Monday through Thursday. With her academic husband dealing with duties on campus, Darden and her boys looked at the temporary Aruba relocation as a bright spot in an otherwise difficult time.

We often had three Zoom calls going at the same time in different parts of our living space! Darden says.

Although work factors into these digital nomads lives, theres also room to play.

What the participants in the Caribbean island programs also have are what Carriman describes as vacation privileges which they absolutely indulge in once they responsibly get their work done.

Darden says she and her husband George called the familys two-month-Aruba stay the childrens first grade study abroad program.

Fridays they saved for field trips, says Darden. We spent time taking care of animals at the Donkey Sanctuary or we took a tour at the Aloe Factory. We went on hikes and visited the ostriches and emus at the Aruba Ostrich Farm. One of my twins was determined to see every beach in Aruba, so we did our best to find them all during our long weekends.

Eusi Skeete, US Director of Tourism in Barbados, says the islands beaches have been a draw for participants of their Welcome Stamp Program, but Carriman insists living and working in a beautiful remote location isnt license to lounge at the beach all day.

You work during the day, you prioritize your deadlines, and then you make the most of your free time and weekends when and how you can, says Carriman, who admits that Barbados beaches truly are something to be rivaled.

We offer remote workers the backdrop of idyllic beaches, tropical landscape, work-life balance, and the opportunity to still be earning their global salary, says Skeete, who says he cannot provide an actual number of welcome stampers but notes that hundreds have been accepted and arrived from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland.

When she doesnt have video calls and the weather is nice, Hunter works outside, overlooking the water. She also starts every morning with a cup of coffee on the dock within walking distance of her flat. She watches the sun rise and then gets down to business.

Also taking advantage of the spectacular Caribbean sunrises is Ryan M., an attorney from Chicago who has asked that we withhold his last name for privacy concerns. Ryan is participating in the Cayman Islands Global Citizen Concierge Program (GCCP). After watching the sun rise, Ryan begins his workdayon the beach. In the middle of the day I hit the gym, and then I usually make it back in time to catch the sunset at night, Ryan says, describing an average day.

Both Hunter and Darden reference the pace of life on the islandsslower than back home in the Statesas being a plus.

Darden appreciated the ability to travel slowly, something not typical in the familys traditional vacations. We had a list of things we wanted to do, but we never felt rushed to see everything or do everything at once. The gift of time allowed us to slow down and take in each place so much more deeply than on a traditional vacation.

People still work a lot in Bermuda, explains Hunter, who notices a slower pace reminiscent of the South, where shes from.

Ryans work can be overwhelming, and he credits the gorgeous Cayman setting with helping him manage stress. He looks up from his laptop, takes in the ocean and serene backdrop of the island, and is able to both connect and unplug when and where I need.

The Darden Family left Aruba on October 4 after two months and a day in paradise. They returned for a week in January, giving the Aruba economy, which is highly reliant on tourism, yet another little boost.

Darden would recommend the change of scenery to anyone. Likewise, Carriman says shed recommend the Barbados residency program, which she says exceeded her expectations. Ryan M. had never been to the Cayman Islands before but is thrilled with the experience. He, too, would recommend it to anyone who has the ability to work remotely. On top of being an absolute paradise, Caymans handling of the COVID pandemic is greatly appealing, Ryan says.

If you have the means, Hunter says, Bermuda is not a bad place to ride out the pandemic. In fact, she likes it so much shes considering what it would look like to split her time between New York and Bermuda.

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What Is It Like to Work Remotely From the Caribbean? - Fodor's Travel

IN MID-FEBRUARY, when a cold snap set in across much of America, Tami Irons, a system administrator at a hospital network in Painesville, Ohio, chased the sun to St. John, the smallest and lushest of the U.S. Virgin Islands. She and her husband have been vacationing on St. John annually since 2005, and not even the continuing pandemic was going to stop them. Getting out of the snow and the cold always makes us breathe a little better, said Ms. Irons.

But this year, even though she booked a private villa that could be canceled anytime, the weeks leading up to the flight proved unnerving. St. Johnas well as neighboring St. Thomas and St. Croixrequire all arrivals to show proof of a negative result from a PCR test taken within five days of landing. The couple made appointments at a medical clinic, then waited nervously for the all-clear. Reports of other islands implementing curfews or, in the case of St. Barts, suddenly banning visitors triggered even more unease. I did not stop worrying about the trip until I was on that plane, said Ms. Irons. Anything could have happened.

To pandemic-beleaguered sunseekers craving sand, sea and warmth this spring, the Caribbean might seem like the promised land. And, indeed, most Caribbean islands welcome American tourists, but the many entry requirements vary widely and are constantly in flux. Anybody traveling has to realize that this is fluid, said Michele Rishty, a travel consultant in Bedminster, N.J., who frequently books Caribbean vacations. Every day it changes.

Until it changes again, heres a snapshot of the hurdles youre likely to face, and guidance on which islands are the easiestor most challengingto visit.

In most of the regions countries and dependent territories, youll need to show proof of a recent negative Covid-19 test even before you set your sandaled foot on the tarmac. How soon before your trip you must take the Covid-19 test varies by country. If youre going to the U.S. Virgin Islands, you only need to take that one test. But if youre heading to any other islandsoutside the U.S.youll need proof of a negative viral test to get back to the mainland. Many of the hotel resorts are starting to offer on-site testing for that express purpose.

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Tempted to Travel to the Caribbean? Know the Covid Rules - The Wall Street Journal

Do you enjoy the Pirates of the Caribbean series starring Johnny Depp? Well, if you are captivated by the backstory of the franchises, you may enjoy the new Netflix original historical docudrama series, which was launched yesterday on the streaming platform.

But, if you are looking for the humorous and goofy life of Jack Sparrow, you will never find anything close to that in The Lost Pirate Kingdom.

The six-part docudrama series goes back to the Golden Age of Piracy in the 1700s after the AngloSpanish War was over. The end of the conflict left British privateers, who worked as a freelance Naval force, with nothing to do.

The privateers turned to piracy and continued to raid Spanish ships and vessels and eventually became outlaws to their own country.

The show goes on to narrate the stories of the pirates of the Caribbean, including how they set up the worlds first fully democratic republic in the Bahamas, where they freed the slaves and even gave them voting rights.

Real-life pirate legends like Blackbeard, Henry Jennings, Benjamin Hornigold, Henry Vane, and of course female pirate Anne Bonny are the subject of the series.

Despite having an unusual amount of violence and adult content even for a historical docuseries aimed to provide learning, The Lost Pirate Kingdom is actually quite fun to watch thanks to outstanding cinematography and design.

Throughout its episodes, the series attempts to tell the story through re-imagination and a production technique called Hyper Dynamic Animation.

The technique allows the producer World Media Rights to establish the pirate republic of Nassau with 4K back projection in front of live-action. Watching the shows is like binge-watching a series of films with good CGIs.

One downside, however, is that almost all episodes have been made with similar approaches. While the story and actions in each of them provide the thrill of sea adventures, the similarity, especially about the conflict between the rich and the poor, make the show a bit dull once viewers reach the third episode.

The acting, meanwhile, should compensate for the damage caused by the lack of diversity. The cast has done a very good job, with their acting turning the project into realistic tales of pirates, especially Sam Callis, Thomas Padley and Mia Tomlinson.

They would have taken the viewer by time-travel back to the Golden Age of Pirates if the explanations and comments from historical experts had not kept them in the present.

The Lost Pirate Kingdom could be watched for both education and entertainment, but if you are under 18 or a die-hard fan of Jack Sparrow, you should choose a different show to watch!

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Living a realistic life on the Caribbean in The Lost Pirate Kingdom - Khmer Times

One in 7 Caribbean-born individuals with either breast or ovarian cancer had hereditary disease with an actionable pathogenic variant, which provides the opportunity for the utilization of targeted therapeutics and precise prevention strategies, according to results from a study recently published in JAMA Network Open.1

Results from the research indicated that of 1018 patients, 98.1% (n = 999) had breast cancer, while 2.1% (n = 21) had ovarian cancer. Moreover, of the 1015 patients for whom data were available, 14.2% (n = 144) were found to have a pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant in a gene associated with hereditary breast cancer and ovarian cancer syndrome. Notably, 64% of patients who had these variants had them in BRCA1, 23% had them in BRCA2, 9% in PALB2, and 4% in RAD51C, CHEK2, ATM, STK11, and NBN.

Patients in the Bahamas were noted to have the highest proportion of hereditary breast and ovarian cancers at 23%; this was followed by Barbados (17.9%), Trinidad (12%), Dominica (8.8%), Haiti (6.7%), Cayman Islands (6.3%), and Jamaica (4.9%).

This genetic association study was a large, unique, and multinational study of breast and ovarian cancer in the Caribbean population. Pathogenic variants in the breast cancer genes of BRCA1, BRCA2, and PALB2 are common causes of breast cancer in Caribbean women, Sophia George, PhD, research assistant professor at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Miami Health System, and colleagues, wrote. People of African descent are understudied and undertested in both the breast and gynecologic cancer settings. Targeted genetic testing of only BRCA1 and BRCA2 is insufficient in Caribbean women, and panel multigene testing should be recommended.

Approximately 40 million individuals reside in the Caribbean and most patients are of African descent with genetic admixture of Indigenous, Asian, Indian, European, and Middle Eastern immigrants. Importantly, breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer-associated deaths in these women; in fact, in some countries, young women are disproportionately affected by this.

In light of the high rates of breast and ovarian cancer that have been observed in the Caribbean, and the relatively young age of patients at the time of presentation, investigators set out to identify the rate of inherited breast and ovarian cancers in select countries within the Caribbean as a way to derive a better understanding of different disease variants region wide.

To do this, investigators planned to consider the odds of harboring a pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant when individuals are diagnosed with these diseases at an early age. They also performed multigene testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer genes in individuals who resided in 7 Caribbean countries: the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Barbados, Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The cross-sectional Caribbean Womens Cancer Study was conducted between June 2010 and June 2018 in 1018 patients with invasive breast cancer and/or ovarian cancer who resided in the Caribbean. Individuals were identified by the following: treating physicians, local cancer societies, hospital and pathology records, and outpatient oncology clinical records of the individual islands. Investigators also recruited participants through the use of different media outlets.

To be eligible for enrollment, patients had to have a pathologic diagnosis of breast cancer and/or ovarian cancer, at least 1 grandparent born in 1 of the 7 selected countries, and they had to be able to provide consent, as well as a saliva sample.

All samples collected from patients underwent next-generation sequencing (NGS) and multiplex ligationdependent probe amplification to allow for the identification of all classes of variants. All individuals were initially screened for BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, and RAD51 variants in the phase 1 portion of the research.

In phase 2, those residing in the Barbados, Cayman Islands, Dominica, and Haiti received full NGS of 30 genes. Those residing in Jamaica and Trinidad who had a family history of either cancer, were less than 40 years of age, and tested negative for the variants examined in phase 1, were re-examined using a multipaneled test.

Following these test results, participants were identified to be have pathogenic variants, or those that directly contribute to disease development; to have likely pathogenic variants, or those with greater than 90% certainty that the variant will cause disease; or to have a variant of unknown significance (VUS).

Of the 1018 participants enrolled to the study, the majority (n = 996) were women, 21 female individuals had ovarian cancer and 3 men had breast cancer. Notably, 86% of patients with breast cancer had a self-detected mass and sought medical attention, underscoring the fact that disease detection via mammogram was uncommon.

More than half of the women who were diagnosed with breast cancer (63%) were premenopausal, and the mean age at the time of diagnosis was 46.6 years. The mean age in those diagnosed with ovarian cancer was 47.6 years. Discrepancies of age and population-based cancer registries in Trinidad and Tobago and the Barbados were noted.

Of 607 patients with a documented disease stage at diagnosis, 33.4% had stage III disease and 5.9% had stage IV disease. Those residing in Haiti had the highest percentage of advanced-stage disease, at 64.7%, while the lowest percentage was noted in Cayman Island residents, at 11%.

A total of 144 variant carriers was identified in the study cohort. Among the carriers for breast cancer, the mean age was 40.7 years; these individuals were significantly younger than those who did not have germline variants, according to the study investigators (P = .03). Approximately 44% (n = 29/66) of carriers were diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) vs 21.1% of noncarriers (P <.001).

Moreover, 50.5% of participants were found to have a family history of either a first- or second-degree relative with breast cancer, while 11.3% had relatives with ovarian cancer. Approximately half of those with VUS had a family history of breast cancer, while 8.5% had a history of ovarian cancer. Any family history of breast cancer was linked with a BRCA1 variant (odds ratio [OR], 4.87; 95% CI, 2.82-8.42; P <.001) or a BRCA2 variant (OR, 3.07; 95% CI, 1.40-6.71; P = .005).

Specifically, of the individuals born in the Caribbean who had breast cancer, having a first- or second-degree family member with the disease was linked with having any BRCA1 or BRCA2 germline variant (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.24-2.01; P <.001). Having a BRCA1 variant was found to be more strongly associated with TNBC vs a BRCA2 variant (OR, 6.33; 95% CI, 2.05-19.54; P = .001).

These data may be useful in screening, increasing awareness of cancer risk, and encouraging risk reduction strategies in people of Caribbean origin and their unaffected family members, the study authors concluded. Awareness of the heightened risks among these patients may help minimize morbidity and maximize care in a group already overburdened with well-described cancer health disparities.

This article was originally published on OncLive as, "1 in 7 Caribbean Adults With Breast or Ovarian Cancers Have Actionable Pathogenic Variants."

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Study Explores Actionable Pathologic Variants in Caribbean Women With Breast or Ovarian Cancer - http://www.oncnursingnews.com/

Though world travel remains a distant dream as the winter of the pandemic melts into spring, Stony Brook Universitys foodservice team is helping the cooped-up campus community make a virtual getaway through food.

Students therewho in the past would have been plotting a spring breakare as stir crazy as the rest of us. And so, the dining teams new series, Global Night, has proven a nice bright spot, complete with a taste of Cuba, featuring a few chefs creations.

Related: 8 ways food service chefs unleash ground porks versatility

With travel restrictions due to COVID, Global Night is a great way to take students on a culinary journey around the world, says Van Sullivan, executive director, Faculty Student Association at Stony Brook University. Sullivan and the team have also been fighting cabin fever with an interactive fitness challenge.

See how Stony Brook and others are switching over to island time with ingredients like plantains, mojo sauce, jerk chicken, pulled pork (or cauliflower steaks for plant-based eating), black beans, yucca and more.

Related: Not the same old grind: Ground pork flavors up the menu

Contact Tara at [emailprotected]

Follow her on Twitter @Tara_Fitzie

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11 ways onsite chefs are beating cabin fever with Caribbean cuisine - Food Management

Im more convinced than ever now that The Crown has no place in The Caribbean. Not even Netflix can change that.

Like millions during this godforsaken pandemic, Ive watched enough of the streaming service to make me wonder if I miss Derry Girls more than I do my own grown children. And Ive slurped the four seasons of The Crown like so many bottles of Cabernet or claret, as the Brits would say.

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A big caveat about The Crown is that its story lines require as much fact-checking as a Donald Trump tweet. But one twist the writers didnt fabricate was Queen Elizabeth IIs solidarity with the British Commonwealth countries many of which she reigns over and most of whose leaders are Black or non-White to help end apartheid in South Africa.

READ MORE: Tit for Tat for Trump in the Bahamas: Now Americans Are the 'Very Bad People"

So kudos to the Queen. And I took that into account as I pondered the accusations of racism thatve been added to the royal familys haunted house of dysfunction after Harry and Meghans interview with Oprah this week.

Still, I have to say this about the royal couples very believable charge that Buckingham Palace was wringing its silk-gloved hands over the hue of their mixed-race child: its only strengthened my belief that Commonwealth countries that still recognize Her Highness as their head of state at least the 10 in the Western Hemisphere should ditch her.

Monday, the day after the Oprah bombshell, was Commonwealth Day. Im sure a lot of folks in the 54 Commonwealth nations, including Canada and many in the Caribbean, sang God Save the Queen. But Im just as sure a lot of them groaned, God, why do we still have a queen? Not just due to the Harry-and-Meghan tell-all, but because of simmering, 21st-century sentiment in those former British territories that commonwealth is just a more polite word for colonialism.

That shadow is one big reason Barbados, a Commonwealth member widely considered the most British of Caribbean islands, announced in September that its replacing Elizabeth with a Barbadian head of state.

The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind, Barbados Governor-General Dame Sandra Mason said. The island, she pledged, will be a republic by the time it celebrates the 55th anniversary of its independence from Britain in November.

GOING QUEEN-LESS

Dominica went queen-less in 1966; Guyana in 1970; Trinidad and Tobago in 1976. Jamaica and a few other Caribbean-under-the-Crown nations are now strongly considering it. I hope they do cut the crown cord, for reasons both practical and principled.

After covering the Caribbean for more than 20 years, Im still racking my brain to figure out what lofty benefits these small island nations derive from having a Windsors tiara-ed portrait on their dollar notes. Or did I miss the Queens announcement last month that shes leading a drive to donate COVID-19 vaccine doses to her Caribbean subjects? Oh, wait, that was India a former British colony schooling the British monarchy in how to help its former colonies.

Prince Harry and wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, talking to Oprah Winfrey

The bottom line is that these countries dont need the Queen and that jettisoning her could and likely would have a psychologically liberating effect on their democracies. It would be a statement of confidence in who we are and what we are capable of achieving, as Mason asserted, and a definitive divorce from the legacy of slave-trading overlordship that first made the West Indies barnacled to England 400 years ago.

If Harry and Meghans allegations of royal racism are a reminder of that, so be it. But White, non-Caribbean denizens of the Western Hemisphere also have a stake in this.

The anachronistic idea of monarchy even the figurehead brand thats pasted on Commonwealth states should be anathema to the New World. A fundamental precept of the Americas is our rejection of Old World aristocracy, of the acridly unjust notion that birth defines worth. Another is sovereignty: a head of state across the Atlantic has no business being a head of state here.

The fact that one still is in the Caribbean the New World nexus and in Canada seems very wrong.

So, especially after the Harry-and-Meghan scandal, I hope Netflixs The Crown devotes a plot line to that very point in Season 5. Ive got a bottle of claret waiting.

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The Crown Has No Place In The Caribbean No Matter What Netflix Shows Me - WLRN

The Daily Beast

ALEXEY DRUZHININKremlin-backed mercenary soldiers who worked for the Wagner Group could be tested in the Russian courts for the very first time after an all-star team of human rights lawyers filed a case in Moscow accusing the militants of the torture and beheading of a man in Syria.In a legal criminal complaint announced Monday on behalf of the victim, Muhammad Hamdi Bouta Taha al-Abdullah, attorneys representing the victims brother allege that six Russian citizens who worked on a contract to secure a Russian-Syrian operated gas plant were behind the 2017 killing. The lawsuit marks the first known attempt to bring to account anyone linked to the highly secretive network of covert operators financed and managed by close inner-circle associates of President Vladimir Putin.Opponents of the dark money paramilitary outfit hope an attack through the courtswhich they expect to take all the way to European Court of Human Rightswill expose the scale of the abuses carried out by the shadowy forces used to conceal the Kremlins off-the-books military adventures all over the world. After more than a year of government stonewalling and dodging allegations about the case, advocates for the victim say, Russian authorities will now be forced to go on record no matter what.Hopefully, this will open the door for all the crimes committed by the Wagner Group not only in Syria, said Mazen Darwish, one of several human rights activists pressing for justice in the case and director general of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression.In a phone interview with The Daily Beast on Saturday, Darwish said that the case against the six Wagner Group paramilitaries is being lodged under articles in the Russian criminal code that call for the prosecution of anyone implicated in torture, grievous bodily injury, and murder. They cant say that this is just a political issue or propaganda because we are bringing this case in Russian courts, under Russian law. Were going to Moscow, to their territory, to their courts, and to their jurisdiction, Darwish said.Allegations of the Wagner Groups involvement in the torture and murder of al-Abdullah, who is better known by his nicknames, Hamdi or Hamadi Bouta, first emerged in June 2017 when a two-minute long video clip of the killing surfaced in an anonymous post on a Reddit subchannel popular with military geeks. The post didnt provide much commentary, only a link to a graphically violent video shot with a shaky hand on a cell phone that showed several Russian speaking men dressed in desert military uniforms taking turns beating a man who has since been identified as Bouta with a sledgehammer.Lawyers and human rights advocates involved in the Moscow case say the complaint marks an important first step toward bringing Russian mercenaries affiliated with the Wagner Group to account for a host of war crimes committed not only in Syria but Libya and the Central African Republic, where several related firms linked to a well-connected Kremlin insider and a one-time Russian intelligence official have reportedly been operating since at least 2017.The brief filed on Friday in connection with Boutas case contends that the Russian government holds effective control over the Russian private military contingent that killed Bouta during operations at the al-Shaer gas plant.Known colloquially as the Wagner Group, the contingent has been linked to a network of Russian firms that U.S. and European authorities say are financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a key player in Putins inner circle known as Putins chef. Although the Wagner Group has been implicated in several violations of international law, including skirting a UN arms embargo in Libya, the Moscow legal filing on Boutas case marks the first time that any official complaint has been brought in court against the private security contingent in connection with an alleged war crime.Last month, the FBI placed Prigozhin on its Most Wanted list in connection with his alleged role in interfering in American elections in 2016 and 2018, offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to his arrest The U.S. government has also sanctioned Prigozhin for his alleged ties to Russian mercenaries affiliated with the Wagner Group.The legal case in Moscow turns on four separate video clips depicting several Russian-speaking men beating, decapitating, and burning a badly mutilated man at the al-Shaer gas plant, a central node in a multimillion-dollar joint oil and gas deal forged between the Syrian government owned General Petroleum Corporation and Stroytransgaz, a Russian state-run hydrocarbon engineering firm headed by Gennady Timchenko, a longtime Putin associate.Neither Timchenko nor Prigozhin are expressly named in connection with Boutas killing.Media and think tank reports indicate that natural gas extraction by EvroPolis, a firm Prigozhin holds a stake in according to U.S. authorities, generated about $162 million from al-Shaer and several other nearby gas fields in 2017, the same year Bouta was killed.Representatives for Stroytransgaz and Prigozhins main company Concord Consulting and Management did not respond to requests for comment made before lawyers representing Boutas family went public with details of the Moscow court filing on Monday.After the first video was anonymously posted in June 2017 three more were posted in November 2019 and began circulating widely on Russian social media platforms.Within days of the second tranche of videos being posted by open source investigators on Twitter, reporters with al-Jessr Press, a Paris-based media outlet that reports on Syria, published the very first account of Boutas killing. A few days later, Novaya Gazeta, one of Russias only remaining independent daily news outlets, published a report naming Stanislav Dychko as one of several Russian nationals depicted in the video. The report also revealed that at least one of the Russian-speaking men in the video had fought in the embattled region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine before traveling to Syria to work for a contingent affiliated to the Wagner Group.Bouta was born in August 1986 in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor in a village not far from where one of his alleged assailants, Vlaidslav Apostol, was killed only months after beating Bouta with a sledgehammer. Apostols family have reportedly confirmed that he worked as a private security contractor in Syria, and that he was one of several hundred Russians killed in a U.S. airstrike in the northeastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor.After his brief stint in the Syrian Arab Army, Bouta went to work in the construction industry, working primarily as a bricklayer. He married and started a family. When the civil war began, he traveled to Lebanon to find construction work after the situation in Syria deteriorated and large parts of Deir Ezzor came under ISIS control, according to an account of Boutas final days given to lawyers by his family.After working for a time in Lebanon, Bouta decided to return to his family in Deir Ezzor. On March 27, 2017, Bouta traveled across the border from Lebanon into Syria at the Beirut-Damascus crossing with a group of young men from his village. Syrian authorities arrested Bouta as he crossed the border and turned him over to members of the Syrian military. At this point, members of the group Bouta was traveling with notified Boutas brother-in-law, who was in Lebanon at the time, that the Syrian military had taken Bouta into custody.Bouta later got in touch with his brother-in-law directly and told him that members of the Syrian Arab Army had taken him to the al-Draij military camp, a well-known deployment hub for Wagner Group fighters. Before he was killed, Bouta said Russian speaking soldiers had press ganged him and several others in custody at al-Draij into fighting contingents deployed to Homs to seize and protect oil and gas infrastructure.Syrias government controls oil, gas, and mineral production and export, and Syrias General Petroleum Company sets strategy for exploration and development and supervises national subsidiaries, including the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) and Syrian Gas Company (SGC). But, as in many other developing countries, Syrias nationalized energy sector is highly reliant on external backing from foreign firms for capital-intensive upstream investment in exploration and development.Stroytransgaz, or STG, the company headed by Kremlin-insider Timchenko, is one of the largest such investors, and in February it secured a $22 million production sharing agreement with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, according to The Syria Report, an online journal that tracks economic developments in the country.Ilya Novikov, one of the Russian attorneys who filed the ground-breaking legal complaint, said in a written statement that he and his co-counsel Petr Zaikin, decided to initiate the case after a demand for Russias Investigative Committee, the countrys top prosecutorial body, apparently fell flat.Novikov said that Novaya Gazeta asked the Investigative Committee to open an inquiry into the murder, but the committee ignored the request. This has forced us, as human rights defenders, to turn to Russian investigative authorities, Novikov said. Indeed, this is a repeat of what happened 20 years ago, when enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions committed during the armed conflict in the Northern Caucasus were likewise not investigated.Mazen Darwish, one of several human rights activists pressing for justice in Boutas case and director general of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, said that Russian authorities have about 40 days to respond to the initial court filing.The case is being lodged jointly by lawyers and advocates associated with Darwishs organization, the Memorial Human Rights Center in Moscow, and the International Federation for Human Rights in Paris. If for some reason the case does not go forward in Moscow, Darwish said, it is likely that he, Novikov and others will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.In 2018, American authorities filed criminal charges against Prigozhin for alleged financial ties to the internet troll farm accused of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. It was unclear, however, whether that case would move forward after federal prosecutors working under the Trump administration dropped charges against Prigozhins St. Petersburg-based firm Concord Consulting and Management in connection with the case. But, a federal arrest warrant issued for Prigozhin in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 16 would seem to indicate renewed interest at the Department of Justice in seeing Prigozhin brought to account.Under a 2019 U.S. law known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, anyone connected to war crimes in Syria under Assads regime could be subject to sanctions. While it is not clear whether U.S authorities would pursue further sanctions against Prigozhin, Timchenko, or any of the other entities implicated in reporting and legal filings on Boutas case the facts certainly suggest that American investigators in Washington will be tracking its outcome closely.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Nancy Grace on UK woman who went missing from yacht off Caribbean - Yahoo News

Marooned at home all winter and with no spring break travel in the cards this year, I figured at least I can get a taste of the warm Caribbean waters by way of my kitchen. This seafood stew is my way of transporting myself there. It has a broth-like base packed with island flavor bright with lime, fragrant with thyme, and spicy with Scotch bonnet pepper.

That base, which colorfully features yellow bell pepper and tomatoes as well, comes together quickly and easily, but its nice that it can be made ahead so it is ready when you are. And when that time comes, just add large chunks of fish fillet and shrimp to the pot, and simmer for a few minutes until they are just cooked through.

In keeping with the island vibes, I suggest using warm water fish such as red snapper or mahi mahi, but any firm white fish fillet will work. You could also substitute additional fish or scallops for the shrimp, if you prefer.

The half Scotch bonnet or habanero pepper called for gives the stew a medium-spicy heat thats prominent but not overwhelming feel free to use more or less to taste (a little goes a long way), or substitute a milder chile such as jalapeo.

Served over rice with a fresh spray of cilantro leaves, its a healthful meal that has a sunny excitement to it, and if I close my eyes I swear I can hear the palm trees rustling in the breeze.

2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as canola, grapeseed or avocado oil

1 medium yellow onion (about 8 ounces), diced

1 medium yellow or orange bell pepper (about 8 ounces), diced

1 celery stalk, sliced

Scotch bonnet or habanero pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced or finely grated

1 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup canned no-salt-added diced tomatoes with juices, or 1 cup fresh diced tomatoes with juices

1 cup seafood stock or water

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, plus more to taste

1 pounds skinless red snapper, mahi mahi or other white fish fillet, cut into 1-inch pieces

8 ounces large shrimp (about 12 shrimp), peeled and deveined

cup fresh cilantro leaves

Cooked rice, for serving (optional)

In a large Dutch oven or a large, deep skillet over medium heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, Scotch bonnet or habanero and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have softened somewhat but have not browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, thyme, salt and pepper and cook for 30 seconds more. Add the tomatoes, seafood stock or water and the lime juice, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the sauce thickens a bit and the flavors are melded, about 10 minutes. (If not planning to eat right away, you can let the stew cool completely, then cover and refrigerate until needed.)

Gently stir in the fish and shrimp, raise the heat to medium, cover and cook, stirring gently occasionally, until the seafood is just cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes. Taste, and season with additional salt and lime juice, if desired. Divide the stew among bowls, garnish with cilantro, and serve with rice, if desired.

Yield: 4 servings

Make ahead: The stew may be made up to the point of adding seafood, then refrigerated for up to 5 days.

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Caribbean-inspired seafood stew brings warm island vibes to the table - The Spokesman-Review

West Indies cricket legend Sir Vivian Richards and former greats Richie Richardson and Jimmy Adams on Sunday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing coronavirus vaccines to the Caribbean region.

In a video message, Richards described India's assistance as a kind gesture and said the region is looking forward to continued relationship with India.

The video message has been posted on Twitter by Indian High Commission in Georgetown, Guyana.

"Thanks India for the wonderful contribution made to our country which is the vaccine. Thank you so much on behalf of Antiguan and Barbudan people," said Richards.

"Thank you very much Prime Minister Modi and thanks tothe High Commissioner to our region. We also thank all the people of India for such a kind gesture," he added.

The Carribbean nations have received coronavirus vaccines from India under its mega initiative to help countries across the world to deal with the pandemic.

External Affairs Minister S Jaiishankar tweeted the video message of Richards with a comment.

"For those who love Old Cricket and New India. Perhaps even for those who understand neither cricket nor India," said Jaiishankar.

In a separate video message, former captain of West Indies cricket team Richie Richardson too thanked Modi for providing the vaccines.

"On behalf of the government and people of Antigua and Barbuda, I would like to thank Prime Minister Modi for his kind generosity in offering us 40,000 Oxford AstraZeneca COVID19 vaccine. We are extremely grateful to you and your country sir," said Richardson.

Another West Indies former cricketer, Jimmy Adams too thanked India for providing the vaccines.

"We are all deeply grateful to the government of India and on behalf of the people in the Caribbean I would like to thank you for this great initiative," said Adams.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Vivian Richards thanks PM for India giving Covid jabs to Caribbean nations - Business Standard