NEWS

Daly: Re-examine report into Archie

For­mer pres­i­dent of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (LATT) Mar­tin Daly SC says Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley must put aside petu­lance af­ter he was ad­vised to re-ex­am­ine the ma­te­r­i­al be­fore him in­volv­ing Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie. Daly said the PM must “look at it with­out any nar­row po­lit­i­cal per­spec­tive” and re­con­sid­er it with an open mind. Daly’s com­ments came hours af­ter Row­ley was or­dered to re­con­sid­er his de­ci­sion to re­ject LATT’s call to im­peach Archie. High Court Judge Vasheist Kokaram made the or­der as he par­tial­ly up­held the LATT’s le­gal chal­lenge against Row­ley’s de­ci­sion. Kokaram ruled that Row­ley made an er­ror by con­clud­ing that the as­so­ci­a­tion’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to mis­con­duct al­le­ga­tions lev­elled against Archie was in­flu­enced by the Op­po­si­tion. Read more here

Doubles vendor killed in Marabella

The criminals waited until late, until a doubles vending couple had sold most of their food, before walking in to take their money. They shot and killed the husband, Daniel Sooklal who had only just arrived in a vehicle. It is uncertain if the killers got any money. The killing happened shortly before midnight at the intersection of the Stadium Link Road and the Guaracara/Tabaquite Road where the doubles vendors had sold for years. Read more here

POLITICS

Cabinet approves BPTT/Shell renewables consortium

The Prime Minister on Thursday confirmed that Cabinet has given a BPTT-Shell consortium the green light to go ahead with its proposal for a renewable energy project. "Just today Cabinet took a decision to continue with our renewable energy initiative. We came to the point where two companies BP and Shell won the proposal and Cabinet agreed that we should advance to that,” Dr Rowley said at the post-Cabinet media briefing at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s. The next step, the Prime Minister said, will be that the companies will now negotiate a power purchase agreement (PPA), which must come back to Cabinet for approval. “And then we will be aiming to produce 130 megawatts of power from renewables,” he said. This is the government’s first confirmation of reports late last year that the consortium (the third party is British renewables company LightSource, which is partly owned by BP) won the Ministry of Energy’s request for proposals (RFP). The RPF was issued in December 2018, as a follow-up to the Ministry’s first call for expressions of interest in June that year. Read more here

PM not getting involved in LATT, CJ ‘kangkatang’

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley yes­ter­day in­sist­ed that he act­ed prop­er­ly, legal­ly and rea­son­ably in the mat­ter in­volv­ing the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (LATT)’s move to have Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie im­peached, stat­ing there is noth­ing more for him to an­swer and would stay clear of any “kangkatang.” The PM was re­spond­ing to High Court Judge Vasheist Kokaram who on Wednes­day in a rul­ing, or­dered Row­ley to re­con­sid­er his de­ci­sion to re­ject LATT’s call to im­peach Archie. Kokaram made the or­der as he par­tial­ly up­held the LATT’s le­gal chal­lenge against Row­ley’s de­ci­sion. He al­so ruled that Row­ley made an er­ror by con­clud­ing that the as­so­ci­a­tion’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to mis­con­duct al­le­ga­tions lev­elled against Archie was in­flu­enced by the Op­po­si­tion. Pressed on the is­sue at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann’s, Row­ley said this mat­ter was not be­tween him and any­one. Read more here

BUSINESS

T&T, B’dos working together on CSME

Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago will be working together to put certain protocols in place to get the wheels of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) moving faster in 2020. Read more here

REGIONAL

Ramphal House recommissioned

SIR Shridath Ramphal, a distinguished Guyanese Diplomat, was recognised for his stellar contribution to the development and advancement of Guyana’s Foreign Service, when the Ramphal House was recommissioned on Thursday in celebration of the country’s 50th Republic Anniversary. The multimillion state-of-the-art edifice, which houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Protocol and Consular Services Departments in addition to the Foreign Service Institute, was recommissioned by President David Granger in the presence of Sir Shridath; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Karen Cummings; and members of the Diplomatic Corps. Ramphal House was originally commissioned in 1983 and reconstructed between 2017 and 2019. “Sir Shridath Ramphal, affectionately called Sonny, is Guyana’s most distinguished global statesman. His stewardship and service to the citizens and homeland, his role as an inveterate integrationist are incontestable,” the Head of State told the distinguished audience. Read more here

Samuda Warns Of Harsh Measures As School Violence Surges

Karl Samuda, the minister with responsibility for the education portfolio, has warned of “harsh measures” to come as the ministry grapples with frequent acts of violence in the nation’s schools. He declined, however, to give details of the type of stringent measures that would be introduced. “I can assure you that we are going to take all necessary measures to put a stop to this. The measures that will have to be implemented will be harsh, but it’s something that we cannot compromise on because what is happening today is totally unacceptable,” Samuda said yesterday. He said that the staff at the Ministry of Education was working to ensure that schools were safe places for children and teachers to operate in. Further, he said that before the decisions were made, he would first meet with ministry officials to properly brief Cabinet on the incidents of violence in schools. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

America's Russia nightmare is back

It's happening again. America is blundering into a new Russia election-meddling hall of mirrors that's already doing Moscow's work: tearing fresh political divides and threatening to again tarnish democracy's most sacred moment, a national election. Revelations Thursday about intelligence assessments that Russia has launched a new interference effort to help reelect Donald Trump -- and the President's furious reaction -- mark the return of a recurring nightmare for the country just nine months before the presidential election. The uproar over Russia's disinformation drive to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Trump four years ago cast a cloud that the current President has never been able to escape. The President's defensive response to a new Russia interference drama, colored by his belief that all such revelations as a "Deep State" assault on his own legitimacy, already appears to be exacerbating the damage caused by Moscow's meddling. Read more here

Coronavirus: South Korea 'emergency' measures as infections increase

South Korea has stepped up measures to contain the spread of the deadly new coronavirus, as confirmed infections increased sharply for a second day. PM Chung Sye-kyun said it was now an emergency as 100 new cases and the country's second death were confirmed. The southern cities of Daegu and Cheongdo have been declared "special care zones". The streets of Daegu are now largely abandoned. All military bases are in lockdown after three soldiers tested positive. About 9,000 members of a religious group were told to self quarantine, after the sect was identified as a coronavirus hotbed. The authorities suspect the current outbreak in South Korea originated in Cheongdo, pointing out that a large number of sect followers attended a funeral of the founder's brother from 31 January to 2 February. On Friday, a second person who contracted the coronavirus died. They were a patient at the same mental hospital in Cheongdo as the country's first victim. Another 15 patients have also tested positive. Read more here

21st February 2020

Back