NEWS

Four dead in Gasparillo crash

Four people reportedly died in an accident at Gasparillo on Thursday morning. Sketchy reports indicate around 5 am the vehicle in which the four were travelling crashed into a lightpole and burst into flames. All the occupants were trapped inside. Read more here

542 reports of ATM fraud

Since the ABM Task Force was rein­tro­duced by the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) in Sep­tem­ber, 19 per­sons have ap­peared be­fore the courts, in­clud­ing 18 non-na­tion­als. ASP Cur­tis Julien of the Fraud Squad re­vealed this at yes­ter­day’s at the po­lice press brief­ing as he gave tips to safe­guard against ATM/card skim­ming, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing the Christ­mas and Car­ni­val sea­sons. Julien said for the first half of the year, 542 re­ports of ATM fraud has been re­port­ed in the Port-of-Spain area alone. He said the skim­ming is di­vid­ed among four banks in T&T and there has been an in­crease in three of those banks be­tween Ju­ly and No­vem­ber. Read more here

POLITICS

Jack likes voting system, joins PNM leadership race

Deputy Chief Secretary Joel Jack is the third candidate challenging Kelvin Charles for the position of political leader of the PNM Tobago Council. Jack is confident his experience is enough to bring him success in the polls on January 19. Jack was accompanied by his wife and a small group of supporters to file his nomination papers at the party’s headquarters, uptown Scarborough on Monday.He told the media he was excited and the one man, one vote system has created a deeper democratic process to encourage those interested and capable of leading the party to come forward. Read more here

AG seeks weed law proclamation at Thursday's Cabinet

Could cit­i­zens be able to give “weed” as a gift for Christ­mas? At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi is tak­ing note to Cab­i­net to­day to seek procla­ma­tion of the re­cent­ly passed law to al­low peo­ple to legal­ly pos­sess 30 grammes to mar­i­jua­na. Al-Rawi an­nounced this in the Sen­ate yes­ter­day dur­ing the de­bate on a bill to abol­ish pre­lim­i­nary in­quiries. Be­fore the de­bate, the Trinidad Guardian had asked him when the re­cent­ly passed mar­i­jua­na bill would be pro­claimed and if it would be­come law in time for Christ­mas. The Dan­ger­ous Drugs (amend­ment) bill (DDA) which al­lows law­ful pos­ses­sion of a min­i­mum of 30 grammes of mar­i­jua­na and max­i­mum of 60 grammes, was passed in the Low­er and Up­per Hous­es of Par­lia­ment in re­cent weeks. Read more here

BUSINESS

House fit for a president

Restoring an icon of TT’s architectural history is no easy task, but on Friday, the Urban Development Corporation (Udecott) and contractors Unicom Ltd handed over a refurbished and rehabilitated President’s House to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). The OPM handed it over to President Paula-Mae Weekes, who hosted a reception for the reopening of the historic house on Tuesday. “It is an occasion for celebration,” Weekes said, as she led guests in a toast to the renovated official residence. "The 21st-century edition of President's House." Read more here

Having a quail of a time

Quail may soon be added to T&T’s cui­sine. The Fac­ul­ty of Food and Agri­cul­ture at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine cam­pus used its re­cent cel­e­bra­tion of Eat Lo­cal Day to launch the In­ten­sive Quail Pro­duc­tion Unit. The launch, held at the Uni­ver­si­ty’s Field Sta­tion in Val­sayn, saw mem­bers of the pub­lic be­ing ed­u­cat­ed about quail pro­duc­tion and the ben­e­fits of rear­ing the bird, both for do­mes­tic and com­mer­cial use. Pro­fes­sor Wayne Gan­pat, Dean of the Fac­ul­ty of Food and Agri­cul­ture, not­ed that there is a grow­ing de­mand for lo­cal food. “But can we feed them? Not on­ly are we giv­ing peo­ple an al­ter­na­tive to chick­en but it is al­so ide­al for en­tre­pre­neurs who want to get in­to food pro­duc­tion and get fast re­turns,” Gan­pat said. Read more here

REGIONAL

$200 For Sex With 12-Y-O - Maxfield Avenue Mason In Hiding After Alleged Assault Of Schoolgirl

A Maxfield Avenue, St Andrew, mason is now at large after he was allegedly caught on Monday having sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old girl whose family had employed him to provide some finishing touches to their home. Residents of Maxfield, where a tractor operator was mobbed to death after splashing a commuter in October, swore to exact jungle justice if they caught the alleged perpetrator. “If a my daughter, mi limb him up same time. Me pull the door and catch dem,” one woman said, declining to give her name. The Gleaner understands that the sexual abuse may have been going on for some time. Our news team gathered that on the day in question, the child, who is on holiday, was downtown with her grandmother. Read more here

“The people want a Police Force they can trust”

President David Granger, on Wednesday, told Senior Officers of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) that Guyanese desire a force, which they can trust and it is therefore incumbent on the organisation to ensure that they understand their roles and responsibilities and make every effort to fulfil them. The President was, at the time, speaking at the Annual Commissioner of Police Breakfast, which was held at the Force’s Conference Room, Eve Leary. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Citizenship Act protests: Thousands held across India for defying ban

Indian police have detained thousands who defied a ban on protests against a controversial new citizenship law. The ban has been imposed in parts of the capital Delhi, and throughout the states of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Mobile data services are suspended in some parts of Delhi close to protest sites. There have been days of protests across India, some violent. The new law offers citizenship to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Read more here

Trump has been impeached, but he's still President. What's next?

President Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in a near party-line vote Wednesday. He is still the President. What comes next is a trial in the Senate early next year that could, but probably won't, cost him the White House. Read more here

19th December 2019

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