NEWS
Six years after $60M fraud, Jupiter breaks his silence
Former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy Andrew Jupiter has broken his silence on a $60 million wire transfer fraud which was committed in 2011, when he was president of the National Energy Corporation (NEC). The fraud was perpetrated through NEC’s account at the First Citizens Bank and the money sent to Boston, Antigua and Dubai. Read more here
Speed limit up to 100 kmph today
The speed limit on all major highways throughout T&T has been increased to 100 kilometres per hour and will take effect today. However, this only means motorists will face the full brunt of the law if they exceed this new limit, as police officers will not be exercising any level of leniency. Read more here
Second Cop Shot
For the second time this week, a police officer intervening in a robbery has been shot. Yesterday, however, the bullet was not fatal. Constable Anand Ramsaran, of the Gasparillo Police Station, was shot in the abdomen as he confronted one of three men who robbed a house in Marabella minutes earlier. Read more here
POLITICS
Cabinet approves funding for new dialysis units
Having spent $50 million annually to dialyze 1,167 patients at private hospitals, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is now planning to scrap this arrangement and place additional dialysis machines at public hospitals. Speaking to the T&T Guardian following a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Deyalsingh said he had just received approval from Cabinet to set up more patient-oriented haemodialysis suites in public hospitals rather than transfer dialysis patients to private hospitals. Read more here
BUSINESS
Deputy Energy PS: T&T must do more to boost use of renewable energy
As global warming worsens, T&T and countries of the Caribbean must do more in the area of renewables and sustainable development said Penelope Bradshaw-Niles, Deputy Permanent Secretary, and Ministry of Energy. Bradshaw-Niles was delivering comments yesterday at the Caricom Energy Month Movie Screening at the Central Bank Auditorium, Port-of-Spain. Read more here
Court decertifies RBC union
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) workers are no longer represented by the Banking, Insurance and General Workers Union (BIGWU), after a High Court judge yesterday ordered that a decision by the Recognition Board be cancelled. The Registration, Recognition and Certification Board (RRCB), in January, certified BIGWU as the legal representative of RBC workers. Read more here
REGIONAL
End The Bloodletting! - That's All Some Inner-City Residents Want For Yuletide Season
While many poor Jamaicans wish for proper shelter and a square meal at Christmas, a handful of inner-city residents bemoaning hard times want nothing more than an immediate end to the bloodletting across the country. "If the killing doesn't stop, some serious disaster a go reach we. This country is going to be destroyed by water," exclaimed 69-year-old Joseph Wright yesterday during the Food for the Poor and Salvation Army's annual Christmas treat at Emmett Park in Kingston. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Brexit: EU leaders set to move talks on to next stage
Australian Catholic leaders reject key calls by child abuse inquiry
Senior leaders in Australia's Catholic church have rejected calls by a wide-reaching investigation into child abuse to end mandatory celibacy for priests and break the secrecy of confession. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which concluded Thursday after five years of work, delivered a total of 189 new recommendations to address what it described as a "serious failure" by Australia's institutions to protect its most vulnerable citizens. The landmark report estimates tens of thousands of children have been abused in Australian institutions, in what the commission described as a "national tragedy." Read more here
15th December 2017