NEWS
CAL declares operating profit
State-Owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL) has reported a summary of its unaudited financial results, for nine months ended September 30, which show the airline has moved into an operating profit and is net income positive for the year-to-date. A CAL release stated the unaudited accounts for the nine months to September 30, show Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) of positive TT$96m which comprises TT$118m on international and other operations and negative TT$22m on the domestic airbridge. Read more here
Eviction notice for Pan Trinbago
Pan Trinbago has less than ten days to pay more than $200,000 in unpaid rent or vacate its long-time home at Victoria Suites, 14-17 Park Street in Port of Spain. Read more here
POLITICS
Petrotrin bid to sue Baptiste-Primus blocked
State-owned Petrotrin has failed in its bid to bring a lawsuit against the Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development Jennifer Baptiste-Primus and the Registrar of the Industrial Court. On Tuesday, Petrotrin’s lawyers filed a judicial review lawsuit in which they claimed both parties had acted unreasonably in registering a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed between itself and the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) in April. However, during a preliminary hearing on the case in the Port-of-Spain High Court yesterday afternoon, High Court Judge Carol Gobin refused the company leave to pursue the claim. Read more here
Rowley: EMBD to pursue $$
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday said Government had secured a landmark judgment in the Court of Appeal in its anti-corruption cases. Read more here
BUSINESS
Youth Linkers told 'stand on integrity'
Forty participants in Republic Bank's Youth Link Apprenticeship programme were told to be "gentlemen and ladies whose actions embody integrity", by general manger, group human resources, Anna-Maria Garcia-Brooks. Garcia-Brooks explained to the students that integrity meant doing the right thing at all times and in all circumstances, whether or not anyone was watching. “As you go through life you will realise that acting with integrity is not always as simple as you might imagine. There will be times when you will have to muster up courage to do the right thing, to challenge or even oppose someone in authority and sometimes, even stand alone in a decision that is based on integrity," she said. Read more here
$17m due to T&T for floods
Insurance taken out by Finance Minister Colm Imbert with the Cayman Islands-based Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) will result in the payout of US$2.5 million to Government, CCRIF said in a briefing yesterday (Oct. 31). At the official exchange rate, that is about TT$17 million. Read more here
REGIONAL
'Fewer Kids Murdered' - Stats Show Decline In Major Crimes Against Youth; Advocate Hoping For Further Reduction
Fewer children are being murdered, according to the latest data from the police, but children's advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison believes that the 2018 figures are quite alarming nonetheless. The statistics reveal that from January 1 to October 31, 2018, a total of 353 major crimes were committed against children across Jamaica. That figure is 128 fewer major crimes than occurred during the same period in 2017, when it was 481. Of the 353 children who had crimes committed against them this year, 38 were murdered (24 males and 14 females). This indicates a 21 per cent decrease in children being murdered when compared to last year when 48 of the nation's youth were killed. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Lion Air crash: Divers retrieve flight data recorder from sea
Indonesian investigators have found the flight data recorder from Lion Air Flight JT610, a discovery that should help explain why the new Boeing 737 crashed Monday, killing all 189 people on board. CNN Indonesia showed images of divers bringing the device, commonly known as a "black box," on board one of the rescue ships in the sea close to Jakarta Thursday, four days after the Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet disappeared off radar during a routine short-haul flight. Read more here
Google staff walk out over women's treatment
Staff at Google offices around the world are staging an unprecedented series of walkouts in protest at the company's treatment of women.The employees are demanding several key changes in how sexual misconduct allegations are dealt with at the firm, including a call to end forced arbitration - a move which would make it possible for victims to sue. Google chief executive Sundar Pichai has told staff he supports their right to take the action. "I understand the anger and disappointment that many of you feel," he said in an all-staff email. "I feel it as well, and I am fully committed to making progress on an issue that has persisted for far too long in our society… and, yes, here at Google, too." Read more here
1st November 2018