NEWS

EMA tackles illegal quarrying

The Environmental Management Authority (EMA) will co-ordinate state agencies to curb environmental ruin by illegal quarrying and squatting in northeast Trinidad. After two recent stories by Newsday on environmental ruin at Toco, and condemnation by Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, the EMA yesterday issued a statement promising action. The statement said the EMA recently did surveillance of areas in north-eastern Trinidad being ruined by illegal quarrying and squatting. Read more here

Police, Prison bodies keen on paradigm shift

Members of the protective services are keeping an open mind over Stuart Young’s appointment as National Security Minister. Speaking with Guardian Media hours after Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced the Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, Police Social and Welfare Association and Prison Officers Association officials expressed optimism over the move. In a telephone interview on CNC3’s Morning Brew programme, Police Social and Welfare Association president Inspector Michael Seales said he felt that the decision was taken by Rowley to coincide with the Government’s nomination of former national security minister Gary Griffith to the post of Commissioner of Police. Read more here

Suspect in ex’s murder: Manhunt for cop

Police are now searching for one of their colleagues in connection with the shooting death of Parliament clerk Mariana Moonisar. Mariana, 29, was gunned down inside her father’s vehicle at Esperanza, Couva, last Friday evening. Her father, Roopchan Moonisar, was shot in the neck and survived. Read more here

POLITICS

Deyalsingh dismisses UNC health claims

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh on Sunday dismissed claims from United National Congress MPs Dr Tim Gopeesingh and Dr Lackram Bodoe about discrimination taking place in TT’s health sector. They made their claims during a news conference at the Opposition Leader’s Office in Charles Street, Port of Spain. On Gopeesingh’s question about “serious misconduct” by him regarding the non-renewal of a radiologist’s contract at the North West Regional Health Authority, Deyalsingh said the court has already ruled there was no substance to that claim. Read more here

Dillon shrugs off Security sacking

“I’m always up for challenges.” That’s the position of an unperturbed former national security minister Edmund Dillon who moves into his new job at the Housing Ministry today. Dillon and others affected by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s latest set of Cabinet changes commented yesterday on the development. Read more here

Meet Your Crime-Busters

Trinidad and Tobago has a new dream team in its crime-fighting arsenal- National Security Minister Stuart Young and Police Commissioner Gary Griffith — who both vowed yesterday to give their best in service to country. Read more here

BUSINESS

Mixed business response to Cabinet reshuffle 

Daphne Bartlett, president of the San Fernando Business Association, says new National Security Minister Stuart Young should be responsible only for that ministry given its strategic importance. “What concerns us is that the new Minster of National Security has a very heavy burden. There are already over 300 murders. The Prime Minister took someone with two important portfolios and put him in such an important ministry. Will he be there to decorate the ministry? I think that he should handle the Ministry of National Security alone,” she said. Bartlett hopes Young and newly appointed Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith, are able to work effectively together. Read more here

DOMA: Young best man for job

The Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) believes incoming National Security Minister Stuart Young is “probably best man for the job”. DOMA said in a news release yesterday that Young was an accomplished attorney-at-law and a successful litigator locally and internationally and had taken a very serious approach to his ministerial responsibilities so far. Read more here

REGIONAL

Break Cycle Of Violence - INDECOM Boss Makes Plea For Social Change In Independent Ja

Terrence Williams, head of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), is decrying independent Jamaica's failure to effectively deal with the problem of crime and to provide security and justice for its people. Arguing that Jamaica has had a long history of violence, Williams says that the country must break that tradition. According to the INDECOM commissioner, in 1962, Jamaica had one of the lowest murder rates in the world with 3.9 per 100,000. However, in 2005, that figure rose to the highest in the world with 58 per 100,000. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Lombok quake: Rescuers search collapsed mosque for survivors

Rescue workers are searching the ruins of a mosque in Lombok, Indonesia, where it is feared people were trapped by Sunday's deadly earthquake. The 6.9 magnitude quake is now known to have killed nearly 100 people and left at least 20,000 people homeless. The mosque is one of thousands of buildings in North Lombok that were damaged. Two people have already been rescued from the rubble, according to the national search and rescue agency. The earthquake struck on Sunday amid evening prayers. One witness told news agency AFP there may have been as many as 50 people in Jabal Nur mosque in Lading-Lading village at the time. "Our imam ran, so the others followed," 53-year-old Kelana said. At least three crushed bodies have already been retrieved from the rubble. Read more here

Trump warns countries against doing business with Iran as sanctions kick back in

President Donald Trump has warned that countries doing business with Iran will "NOT be doing business with the United States" as his administration reimposed sanctions on Iran Tuesday. In an early morning tweet, Trump described the measures as "the most biting sanctions ever" and warned they would "ratchet up to yet another level" in November, when US sanctions on Iranian oil will be reimposed. "I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!" Trump added. Read more here

7th August 2018

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