NEWS
Music Festival provides platform for youths to shine
Young people continued to shine yesterday as they showcased their talents in the final leg of the preliminaries of the 32nd Biennial Music Festival at the Naparima Bowl, San Fernando. Sweet singing and solid instrumental sounds from both the tenor and double tenor pans, as well as from the recorder, filled the atmosphere, drowning out the pitter-patter of the raindrops on the auditorium’s roof. Read more here
Cops, medics insensitive
Survivors of rape and sexual abuse have accused police officers and medical examiners of being dismissive and rough when interacting with them—causing them to relive their trauma, perceiving them to be lying and sometimes leading to them not pursuing their complaints. This was the word from Rape Crisis Society management member and social worker, Marian Taylor, at the launch of the Model Guidelines for Sexual Offence Cases in the Caribbean Region at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, yesterday. Read more here
'I strangled her while high of cocaine'
A Freeport man walked into a police station on Saturday and allegedly confessed that he killed a close female relative in their home. Police went to the house and found the woman – Patsy Persad – dead. Persad, 53, was found on the floor of her bedroom at Ramsamooj Avenue, Freeport. She was employed as a cashier at a Freeport business. Read more here
POLITICS
Lee queries Dragon Field gas supply
A damning report on Venezuela’s oil sector yesterday by the International Energy Agency (IEA) led Opposition spokesman on energy, Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee, to vow to raise questions in Parliament about promised supplies of natural gas to TT from Venezuela. The bad news on Venezuela came in an otherwise cheerily-titled IEA statement, “Record oil output from US, Brazil, Canada and Norway to keep global markets well supplied: IEA report finds the United States alone will account for nearly 60 per cent of global supply growth through 2023.” Read more here
Sharon Rowley: We must end violence against women
The elimination of violence against women must be one of this country’s main areas of focus. This was the view expressed by Sharon Rowley, wife of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, yesterday, as she said the physical and mental abuse of the nation’s women had now become a national plague. Read more here
Education Minister: damage to schools sewer deliberate
Education Minister Anthony Garcia believes sabotage is behind the repeated breakdowns of sewage systems that have forced the closure of several primary schools. Read more here
BUSINESS
7 advances, no declines
Overall market activity resulted from trading in 11 securities of which seven advanced, none declined and four traded firm. Trading activity on the First Tier Market registered a volume of 658,669 shares crossing the floor of the Exchange valued at $2,963,532. GraceKennedy Limited was the volume leader with 593,796 shares changing hands for a value of $2,000,281.40, followed by JMMB Group Limited with a volume of 22,922 shares being traded for $45,808.20. T&T NGL Limited contributed 18,930 shares with a value of $517,716.50, while Sagicor Financial Corporation Limited added 13,906 shares valued at $108,883.98. Read more here
Tobago counts its losses
Tobago businesses have lost as much as $700 million in the last year as a direct result of ongoing challenges with both the air and seabridge, according to the chairman of the Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce Demi-John Cruickshank. Read more here
REGIONAL
JLP Keeps Seat - Businessman Nigel Clarke Victorious At Polls
Businessman and scholar Dr Nigel Clarke yesterday ensured that the St Andrew North West constituency remained in the column of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) when he won convincingly, defeating the People's National Party's (PNP) Keisha Hayle in the by-election. Results of the preliminary count show that Clarke polled 4,448, or 61 per cent of the vote, to Hayle's 2,812, or 39 per cent. The win has given the JLP a comfortable cushion in the House of Representatives, which remains at 33-30 margin. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Nunberg episode marks the dawn of Mueller's March madness
The grinding pressure of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation is starting to do strange things to people's heads. How else to explain a staggering, reality TV-style meltdown of short-lived Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg on Monday, played out in a batch of cable news interviews, marking the oddest twist of the Russia saga yet? In a stunning blast of accusations, insults and non-sequiturs, Nunberg vowed to defy a grand jury subpoena, dared Mueller to arrest him and claimed the relentless prosecutor believed that Donald Trump was a Manchurian candidate. Read more here
Russian spy: Sergei Skripal collapsed alongside daughter
6th March 2018