NEWS

Two held with scarlet ibis carcasses

Two people were held with five scarlet ibis carcasses at the Caroni Bird Sanctuary, yesterday. Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat announced the arrest in a Facebook post. “There is no doubt today that the scarlet ibis is an Environmentally Sensitive Species (ESS) under the Environmentally Sensitive Species Rules and possession involves a fine of up to $100,000 for each bird, with the possibility of up to two years imprisonment,” he said.  Read more here

‘Little progress in reducing HIV’

This coun­try has made “very lit­tle progress in re­duc­ing HIV and AIDS through ed­u­ca­tion, re­sources and nec­es­sary sup­port in the con­text of glob­al trends,” ac­cord­ing to Nikoli Ed­wards, ex­ec­u­tive chair­per­son T&T Youth. Since 2016, Ed­wards said he had been able to wit­ness the op­er­a­tions of HIV or STD/STI clin­ics in more de­vel­oped coun­tries around the world and there was ab­solute­ly no rea­son why T&T had not raised its stan­dard. “This was es­pe­cial­ly con­cern­ing for a coun­try with such a small pop­u­la­tion, but one that ex­ists in one of the most at-risk re­gions,” he said. Read more here

POLITICS

Hinds hopes Opposition relents

Minister in the Office of the Attorney General Fitzgerald Hinds is hoping an eleventh hour change of heart by the Opposition ahead of the month-end deadline to pass the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2018. The bill lets the authorities of TT and other nations share the tax-details of individuals. Last Friday the Opposition said they will not participate in a Special Select Committee of the House of Representatives proposed that day by Finance Minister Colm Imbert. Read more here

Griffith: I intend to cripple their business

Po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tors are now on the hunt for the “Big Fish” in con­nec­tion with yes­ter­day’s $3 mil­lion drug bust that oc­curred at North Val­sayn. A busi­ness­man linked to a pop­u­lar fur­ni­ture chain in T&T owns the res­i­dence, ac­cord­ing to sources. Guardian Me­dia was told that in­ves­ti­ga­tors be­lieve that there is al­so a “strong” Colom­bian link to the mas­sive drug ring that they be­lieve they have “cracked.” Four Venezue­lan women were among nine peo­ple ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with the drug haul and up to press time were be­ing ques­tioned by the po­lice. Read more here

BUSINESS

GHL advances, SFC slips

This week, we at Bourse review the performance of two insurance companies within the Non-Banking Finance sector—Guardian Holdings Ltd (GHL) and Sagicor Financial Corporation Ltd (SFC)—for the nine-month period ended September 2018. Read more here

REGIONAL

Editors' Forum | Sexual Harassment Sham? - Hewett Questions The Commitment Of Legislators To Pass Long-Promised Law

Almost 30 years after Jamaica first started its consideration of laws to address the issue of sexual harassment, executive director of Woman Inc Joyce Hewett has concluded that the political will is not there for the legislation to be passed. And Hewett is convinced that the delay in the legislation is partly because men are the ones who predominantly make the decisions in Parliament. Speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum last Thursday, Hewett noted that there have been discussions about introducing sexual harassment legislation from as far back as 1991. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

China baby gene editing claim 'dubious'

Significant doubts have emerged about claims from a Chinese scientist that he has helped make the world's first genetically edited babies. Prof He Jiankui says the twin girls, born a few weeks ago, had their DNA altered as embryos to prevent them from contracting HIV. His claims, filmed by Associated Press, are unverified and have sparked outrage from other scientists, who have called the idea monstrous. Such work is banned in most countries. Read more here

Ukraine says Russia opened fire on its naval vessels, seized them

The Ukrainian military said Sunday that Russian boats opened fire on and seized three of its ships near Crimea, escalating a standoff over the Kerch Strait, a key waterway that holds strategic importance for both countries. The incident marks a major escalation in tensions between the two former Soviet Republics. On Monday, Ukrainian lawmakers will vote on whether to declare martial law, following a proposal by the country's President Petro Poroshenko. An emergency United Nations Security Council meeting has been called for Monday to discuss the issue. Read more here

26th November 2018

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