News

Lightning strike leads to traffic pile-up

The Min­istry of Works and Trans­port was forced to open the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route (PBR) to pri­vate cars last evening af­ter a light­ning strike left the traf­fic lights at the Curepe In­ter­sec­tion non-func­tion­al.

Yes­ter­day there was heavy rain­fall and even flash flood­ing in some parts of the East-West cor­ri­dor, in­clud­ing St Joseph, St Au­gus­tine, the Uri­ah But­ler High­way in Mt Hope, Tu­na­puna, El Soc­cor­ro and the South­ern Main Road in Curepe. Read more here…

Chinese national’s bail appeal fail

A CHINESE national who was charged this year with harbouring under-age Venezuelan girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation has failed in his attempt to have the Court of Appeal review its previous position on bail.

Chang Bao Wang, 37, has been in prison custody for the past seven months, having been denied bail at the Magistrates’ Court by a Master of the High Court and also the Appeal Court. Read more here…

Politics

Police seek Kamla tip-off statement from Marlene

A po­lice of­fi­cer has been as­signed to speak with PNM MP for Port-of-Spain South Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald to see if she’s will­ing to give a state­ment on her claim that Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar had tipped her off that po­lice would have been com­ing to ar­rest her.

Guardian Me­dia con­firmed this from re­li­able po­lice sources yes­ter­day. It’s the lat­est de­vel­op­ment in the mat­ter af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, on Sep­tem­ber 9 claimed Per­sad-Bisses­sar tipped off Mc­Don­ald about her Au­gust ar­rest by po­lice. Read more here…

Cox: Nothing clandestine about retreat

WHILE the Cabinet retreat on Wednesday had not been publicly announced beforehand, there was nothing clandestine about it, said Communications Minister Donna Cox. “We spoke about the plans and programmes in our ministries,” she told Newsday on Thursday. “We shared what was happening in each of our ministries, so everybody would know what is happening. It was an information-sharing exercise.” The retreat was a whole day event at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's. Read more here…

Business

First Citizens CEO takes charge of BATT

Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of the First Cit­i­zens Group Karen Dar­basie has been ap­point­ed as the new pres­i­dent of the Bankers As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (BATT).

She takes up the man­tle from im­me­di­ate past pres­i­dent Nigel Bap­tiste, Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor, Re­pub­lic Bank Ltd and brings over two decades of bank­ing ex­per­tise to her new po­si­tion.

Dar­basie will serve as BATT’s pres­i­dent for the next two years. Read more here…

Tax businesses to maintain PoS

DECISIONS to increase or implement new taxes are often met with protest and objection. But Port of Spain businesses are actually asking to be taxed.

President of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) is advocating for businesses to contribute to the government’s drive to “revitalise” Port of Spain. Aboud was speaking during a consultation on the development of a Port of Spain “master plan” held at the Government Campus Plaza on Wednesday night. Read more here…

Regional

Union Leaders Offer Mediation To End Cockpit Country Mining Protests

Kavan Gayle, president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union; Lambert Brown, the head of the University and Allied Workers Union; and St Patrice Ennis, general secretary of the Union of Technical Administrative and Supervisory Personnel are to begin the process of social dialogue and engagement aimed at resolving the dispute.

Their unions also represent workers at the Noranda Bauxite Company in St Ann. Read more here…

Former Petrojam Boss Racks Up $1 Million Phone Bill In One Month

According to the document, in December 2016, Grindley’s phone bill amounted to $1,008,099.80.

That was multiple times the phone bill of Winston Watson, a previous Petrojam boss who had been seconded to the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica as group general manager.

That same month, Watson incurred $20,947.27 in cell-phone charges. Read more here…

‘We’ll be ready in February’

In a letter addressed to President David Granger, chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Retired Justice Claudette Singh said by the end of February 2020, the electoral body would be ready to hold General and Regional elections. Read more here…

International

Canada's Justin Trudeau cannot say how often he wore blackface

He was speaking after more images of him wearing black make-up when he was younger emerged.

"I am wary of being definitive about this because of the recent pictures that came out, I had not remembered," he told reporters in Winnipeg. Read more here…

Trump denies promise that led to formal complaint from intelligence official

The Washington Post said the intelligence official found the comment "so troubling" they went to the department's inspector general.

In a tweet, Mr Trump dismissed the claims as "fake news".

Democrats are trying to get the complaint turned over to Congress, with the details still unknown.  Read more here…

20th September 2019

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