标签： Jamaica

The family of 31-year-old American lifestyle content creator Ashly Robinson, known professionally as Ashlee Jenae, is demanding full clarity after her unexpected death during a celebratory vacation in Zanzibar with her fiancé.

In an official statement shared to Instagram Sunday, Robinson’s relatives described the jarring speed of the tragedy: just days after the creator marked her birthday and accepted a marriage proposal from long-time partner Joe McCann, she was gone suddenly. “One moment she was celebrating love and life in truly Ashly fashion, and the next, she was gone,” the family wrote.

The trip had been billed as a dream getaway for the couple, who had documented every step of their journey for Robinson’s 88,000+ social media followers. The milestone occasion included two huge life moments: Robinson’s 31st birthday, and McCann’s marriage proposal, both of which she shared with her online community before the unthinkable happened.

What was supposed to be a joyous celebration quickly devolved into the family’s worst nightmare. Per the statement, Robinson was found unresponsive in her private villa at the resort. Resort staff rushed her to a nearby local medical facility, where medical personnel confirmed her death a number of hours later.

Local police have publicly stated they are working under the initial assumption that Robinson died by suicide. Additional unconfirmed media reports have claimed that the couple experienced a verbal altercation earlier in the trip, prompting hotel management to reassign them to separate rooms for the remainder of their stay.

Robinson’s family has rejected the tentative narrative, calling her death suspicious and saying they are collaborating closely with Zanzibari law enforcement to uncover the full facts of what led to her passing. In their statement, the family noted that the distance from their home in the United States, combined with the sudden loss and lack of clear answers, has compounded their grief beyond measure.

“The suddenness, the unanswered questions, and the distance from home have made this tragedy even more overwhelming for our family,” the statement read. “At this time there is an active investigation into the circumstances surrounding Ashly’s suspicious passing. Although we have many questions, we are placing our trust in the officials in Zanzibar and are working closely with them as we seek clarity and answers.”

Before her death, Robinson had built a dedicated online following as a lifestyle creator, regularly sharing candid insights into her travels, personal life, and relationship with McCann for her tens of thousands of engaged followers.

LONDON (AFP) – Six weeks into open conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran that has choked off one of the world’s most critical energy and trade chokepoints, the top leader of the United Nations’ global maritime regulatory body has issued a clear legal rebuke: no nation has the authority under international law to block commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez laid out the organization’s position during a press briefing in London, as the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea — through which roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil consumption and a large share of global liquefied natural gas trade transits — remained largely paralyzed by escalating military tensions. The conflict erupted February 28 after joint strikes by U.S. and Israeli forces against Iranian targets, after which Tehran moved to restrict access across the strait.

In remarks that clarified the IMO’s stance on the mounting crisis, Dominguez emphasized that binding international law upholds the right of innocent passage and guarantees unimpeded freedom of navigation for all commercial vessels through international straits used for global transit. No sovereign state, he said, is legally permitted to revoke these fundamental protections.

To date, Iranian authorities have only allowed a small, carefully vetted trickle of vessels to pass through a narrow corridor along its territorial coast. Multiple independent reports have documented that Iranian officials have demanded unofficial payments from vessel operators to grant passage, a practice Dominguez says has no standing under international rules.

“Charging a toll for navigation through an international strait directly violates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and long-standing customary international maritime law,” Dominguez said. “Beyond being illegal, this move sets an extraordinarily dangerous precedent that could upend decades of established norms governing global trade routes.”

The situation has been further complicated by the United States’ recent vow to implement its own full blockade of all Iranian ports along and near the strait, set to begin this week. Dominguez noted that this additional U.S. military move does nothing to ease the already strained situation for global shipping. He added, however, that the practical impact of the U.S. blockade would likely be minimal, given how sharply traffic has already dropped since the conflict began.

“With already just a handful of ships managing to complete transits each week, an additional blockade will not exacerbate the crisis to any significant degree that would shift the current status quo,” he explained.

Dominguez concluded by stressing that the only sustainable path forward to resolving the crisis and restoring normal commercial shipping operations through the strait is immediate de-escalation between all conflict parties. Only through lowering tensions can global trade through this vital route return to its pre-crisis levels, he said.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana — A tragic deadly stampede at Haiti’s world-famous historic Citadelle Laferrière has left at least 30 people dead, drawing messages of condolence and solidarity from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in the wake of the weekend disaster.

The fatal incident unfolded around 4:00 p.m. Saturday in the northern Haitian town of Milot, where thousands of pilgrims and tourists had gathered for annual Holy Week visits to the iconic fortress. According to initial official accounts, unseasonably heavy rainfall sparked sudden panic among the large crowd packed at the fortress’s entrance gates. As the throng of attendees surged to escape the weather, the chaotic crush turned deadly. Authorities confirmed most fatalities were caused by asphyxiation, while additional deaths resulted from trampling amid the uncontrolled crowd movement.

The Citadelle Laferrière, constructed in the early 1800s shortly after Haiti won its independence, holds profound national significance as the largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere and a core symbol of Haitian sovereignty. Every year during the Christian Holy Week leading up to Easter, the landmark draws tens of thousands of local and international visitors, creating persistent strains on local crowd management infrastructure.

Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who officially confirmed the death toll, said the national government was overwhelmed by “profound emotion and immense sadness” over the tragedy. “The government extends its sincere condolences to the bereaved families and assures them of its deep solidarity during this time of mourning and great suffering,” Fils-Aimé said in a public statement. He added that local and national emergency authorities have been fully mobilized to deliver immediate aid, medical care and logistical support to everyone affected by the crush.

The prime minister noted that officials are maintaining close, ongoing monitoring of the response effort, and called on the Haitian public to remain patient and calm as formal investigations get underway to unpack the exact sequence of events that led to the disaster. “In this particularly difficult time, the prime minister and the Government reaffirm their solidarity with the victims and the entire affected community,” he added.

Local officials warn that the confirmed death toll may climb in the coming days, due to critical shortages of emergency resources in Milot that have delayed response efforts. Milot Mayor Wesner Joseph highlighted that the town lacks adequate ambulance services and other critical emergency infrastructure, slowing the transport of injured victims to care facilities. As of Monday, officials were still waiting for additional judicial authorities to arrive to formally process and document all casualties.

Haiti’s Civil Protection Department has already released a preliminary assessment pointing to multiple contributing factors: severe overcrowding at the popular site, compounded by longstanding gaps and shortcomings in organized crowd management protocols. Most of the victims are reported to be young people, with injured survivors transported to the town’s Sacré-Cœur Hospital for treatment. Haiti’s Ministry of Tourism also issued its own statement extending “condolences and deepest sympathies” to the families of all those killed and hurt.

In Georgetown, Caricom issued an official statement extending the regional bloc’s collective condolences to the Haitian government and people following the tragedy. “Caricom expresses heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and hopes for the speedy recovery of those injured,” the organization said. Caricom leaders confirmed that Caricom Chair Dr. Terrance Drew, who also serves as Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, personally conveyed the bloc’s sympathies directly to Prime Minister Fils-Aimé in a phone call shortly after news of the disaster broke. The regional bloc added that it “stands in solidarity with Haiti during this time of grief and loss.”