NEWS
Ex-Cop Foils Murder
It seems that even in retirement, crime fighting is still in Cecil Santana’s blood. The former Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) yesterday ‘arrested’ an armed man and in so doing foiled what could have been a murder after another man, bleeding badly, ran to Santana’s front gate and said he was being pursued by a man who wanted to kill him.In an ironic twist, it was later learnt that the suspect is a businessman who was robbed at his home by the man who Santana rescued yesterday and who was only released from prison last week after posting bail for the alleged crime. He remains warded at hospital in critical condition suffering from gunshot wounds while the businessman remains in custody. According to reports, at 11.25 am yesterday, the 29-year-old businessman was driving his white Toyota Hilux van along Husa Trace in Mayo when a silver Lancer car driven by the robbery accused, now out on bail, stopped in front of the Hilux and the man alighted from the car. The businessman is said to have shot the other in his leg and stomach, forcing him to run back to the car and drive off with the businessman in hot pursuit. Read more here
Boy Fractures Skull
Parents are renewing their call for Government to fix the railings of the Fifth Company Baptist Primary school, after a Standard Two pupil fell over it last week, fracturing his skull. School officials said Tisean Alexis, eight, was sliding down the railings around midday last Wednesday when he fell. However, his mother Curlanne Charleau claims her son was pushed. Alexis, who lives in St Mary’s Village, Moruga, remains warded at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex at Mt Hope. He suffered cuts on his face and a fracture to the left side of his skull. Read more here
Homeowners turned away at valuation offices
The crowds have shrunk to about a handful a day at the Valuation Office of the Ministry of Finance in Port of Spain. It's just as well, given that the ministry has suspended the process and is not accepting forms. With the High Court having ruled last week that citizens need not file property tax declaration forms until the determination of a lawsuit challenging the fiscal measure, the rush has died down, the Express was told during a visit yesterday. Read more here
POLITICS
AG happy Appeal Court will hear matter June 6
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi yesterday said he was pleased that the Court of Appeal will hear the State’s appeal against Justice Frank Seepersad’s ruling on June 6. On May 19, Seepersad ruled that the implementation of property tax be halted. Al-Rawi said the State’s lawyers are confident ,”the constitutional basis for the property tax legislation is sound in law and will stand up to judicial scrutiny.” Following an undertaking which was given to the Judiciary’s administrative staff over the weekend, Al Rawi said a notice of appeal, a record of appeal, as well as skeletal arguments were filed in the court yesterday. Read more here
T&T 88th on list of healthiest countries
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says T&T is an unhealthy society ranked 88th among the healthiest countries in the world by Bloomberg. He appealed for citizens to take personal responsibility for their health and warned that the country was in the midst of a health crisis. In his remarks at the launch of a Biomedical Engineering (BME) Conference at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Port-of-Spain, Deyalsingh advised citizens that their health is not the sole responsibility of the State. Read more here
Al-Rawi: Final debate on child marriages coming up
The final debate on legislation on child marriage is expected to be held before the end of this month. Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has called on young women and girls to make their voices heard. Al-Rawi was speaking during the St Joseph's Convent, San Fernando, “Big Draw” event, an artistic display held on San Fernando Hill on Sunday. Read more here
BUSINESS
Port, Chamber meet in Tobago
The Board of the Port Authority and representatives of the Tobago Division of the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce will meet to discuss challenges facing the domestic seabridge. Contacted yesterday, Port Authority chairman Allison Lewis confirmed that she received a letter from Tobago Chamber chairman Demi John Cruickshank requesting a meeting to discuss these issues. Read more here
T&T must look harder at its NIS
A social security expert at a Canadian human resources consulting and technology firm is advising that T&T must make structural changes in its National Insurance System (NIS) pension system or face dire consequences in the future. Derek Osborne, who works at Morneau Shepell’s Bahamas subsidiary, said: “The system if left untouched will run out of funds. The last actuarial review done in 2013 in T&T showed if no changes were made to the system, it would run out of funds by 2030. The consequences would be that the contribution rate would have to rise gradually to around 35 per cent. Certainly that rate is not sustainable if it is shared 50-50 by the employers and workers and so some reforms are required,” he said. Read more here
REGIONAL
Guyana businessman suing Republic Bank after being prevented from accessing his account
Guyana businessman and international author Dennis Adonis says that he is in the process of filing a $10 million (US$50,000) court action against Republic Bank, after the Water Street branch of the regional financial institution repeatedly refused to grant him access to his bank account. According to Adonis, he has been a customer with the bank for more than 15 years, but discovered a few weeks ago that he could not access his account; neither could any of his usual online transactions be processed. He stated that upon visiting the Water Street branch of the bank, he was told by two staff members that someone may have stolen his Visa card credentials and was actively using it at a casino in France. Read more here
Traumatised - Hurt By 2010 Incursion, Youngsters Now Behind West Kingston Violence
Disorder and acts of violence have become the order of the day in west Kingston. With almost daily shootings and murders, worried residents are now blaming youngsters who were mere children at the time of the May 2010 incursion by the security forces aimed at capturing Christopher 'Dudus' Coke and the subsequent absence of strong leadership in the area since his extradition. Official reports put the death toll of the events at 69 people, with at least 35 wounded and more than 500 arrested. "With the death and incarceration of some of the older guys who used to keep the order, a lot of youths who were underage during the incursion have now stepped up to try to claim territory," said 22-year-old Denham Town resident Allan Powell, who has produced the documentary Children of the Incursion, which explores the psychosocial impact the incursion had on the children who lived through the ordeal. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Manchester attack: 22 dead and 59 hurt in suicide bombing
Unidentified object flies from North Korea over border with South
South Korea's military fired warning shots after it spotted an unidentified object flying from North Korea across the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two countries, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. The object, which the South Korean military said was no longer visible, was spotted two days after Pyongyang test-fired a ballistic missile -- its second missile test in seven days. It's not the first time South Korea has reacted to an object sent across its border. Read more here
23rd May 2017