NEWS

Griffith: New unit to tackle white-collar crime

Comissioner of Police Gary Griffith yesterday said he intends to form a new division by merging units of different financial units to tackle fraud, corruption and embezzlement. He made the announcement while responding to a question from a member of a forum on restoring trust in the police service at the University of the West Indies St Augustine campus. He said , in the past different agencies responsible for arresting white-collar criminals have operated separately, but he intends to form a more robust unit to investigate such crimes. Read more here

Facts condemned Petrotrin to closure—Espinet

The cold hard facts con­demned Petrotrin to clo­sure. This was the state­ment of Petrotrin chair­man Wil­fried Es­pinet while un­der cross-ex­am­i­na­tion from Se­nior Coun­sel Dou­glas Mendes in the In­dus­tri­al Court yes­ter­day. Es­pinet re­turned to the wit­ness box as the Oil­field’s Work­ers Trade Union’s in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions of­fence com­plaint against Petrotrin con­tin­ued. C Mendes is rep­re­sent­ing the OW­TU in the mat­ter. Es­pinet was once again asked by Mendes if on the Au­gust 12 the board had told the Gov­ern­ment the best op­tion was to close Petrotrin. Read more here

POLITICS

Stuart: Imported gas not being used yet

Any notion that imported gasoline is inferior to that formerly produced by the Petrotrin refinery was scotched by Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young at yesterday’s post-Cabinet briefing at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s. He debunked recent rumours that gasoline sold at local pumps is an imported and inferior fuel that burns off quickly. Read more here

Parliament debates transformation of Police Service today

Next step in trans­for­ma­tion of the Po­lice Ser­vice. That in­volves to­mor­row’s de­bate in Par­lia­ment on a mo­tion to adopt the re­port of the Po­lice Man­pow­er Au­dit com­mit­tee which was head­ed by Pro­fes­sor Ramesh De­osaran. De­bate be­gins 10 am. The com­mit­tee was man­dat­ed in 2017 to ex­am­ine the man­pow­er of the Po­lice Ser­vice and the ex­tent to which its strength is meet­ing ma­jor ob­jec­tives and whether its hu­man re­source ca­pac­i­ty is suf­fi­cient. Its re­port, ti­tled “Now is the Time—No Sa­cred Cows,” was sub­mit­ted to Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley last year Oc­to­ber. The Po­lice Ser­vice was found to be “in a wound­ed trou­bled” state main­ly be­cause of the com­plex net­work of prob­lems fac­ing it and plus con­tin­ued in­abil­i­ty to res­cue and re­cov­er it­self. The De­osaran team felt TTPS re­form has to be treat­ed as an emer­gency—but there’s no mag­ic cure. Read more here

BUSINESS

TTAL unveils new marketing plan in London

One of Lon­don's icon­ic cabs wrapped in To­ba­go Be­yond brand­ing im­agery has tak­en to the streets of the British cap­i­tal as part of a new brand­ing strat­e­gy be­ing rolled out at the World Trav­el Mar­ket 2018 (WTM). Mak­ing the maid­en trip yes­ter­day in the brand­ed cab, which has been en­gaged for six months by the To­ba­go Tourism Agency Lim­it­ed (TTAL), were THA Chief Sec­re­tary Kelvin Charles, Sec­re­tary of Tourism, Cul­ture and Trans­porta­tion Na­dine Stew­art-Phillips TTAL Chair­man Dr. Sher­ma Roberts and CEO Louis Lewis who are at­tend­ing the WTM in Lon­don. Read more here

REGIONAL

Eat Jamaican To Grow Jamaica - Collings

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Andrene Collings has underscored the immense potential economic value of the Grow What We Eat ... Eat What We Grow campaign. She says that every Jamaican can contribute to this campaign by taking part in simple, everyday activities. "Buying more Jamaican, eating more Jamaican and exporting more Jamaican value-added products will certainly have a positive impact on our economy. Eating Jamaican is about supporting local agriculture. It is about spending your money on fresher, tastier products that have been grown or processed locally instead of being imported from thousands of miles away," she told the recent launch of Eat Jamaican Month. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Trump jets to Paris, leaving political tumult behind

Sullen and combative after an electoral humbling, President Donald Trump jets Friday to Paris, hoping to use the global stage to restore some standing as he faces a tumultuous political future at home. The President and first lady are visiting the French capital for a ceremony commemorating 100 years since the end of World War I, a weighty moment for the world to remember the conflict that did not wind up ending all wars. Read more here

'Remarkable' decline in fertility rates

There has been a remarkable global decline in the number of children women are having, say researchers. Their report found fertility rate falls meant nearly half of countries were now facing a "baby bust" - meaning there are insufficient children to maintain their population size. The researchers said the findings were a "huge surprise". And there would be profound consequences for societies with "more grandparents than grandchildren". Read more here

9th November 2018

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