NEWS

Microsoft: AI creates more efficient work force

Technology is rapidly changing business industries making other companies obsolete. This was the view of Roberto Icasuriaga Gatti, Microsoft's Director of Small, Medium and Corporate Business for Latin America and the Caribbean keynote speaker at Microsoft Trinidad's Innovation Summit on Tuesday at the Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain. He told the audience big data and AI technology could revolutionise their jobs, however, warned that all industries must brace themselves for the changes emerging technology would bring to their industries. Read more here

Woman killed by ‘speeding’ driver

Sher­von Med­i­na had walked from her hus­band’s home to near­by shop on the Diego Mar­tin Main Road on Tues­day night hop­ing it would be open. That trip around 7.15 pm would lead to tragedy as a car, re­port­ed­ly dri­ven by a po­lice of­fi­cer, sped over the pave­ment she trod, pitch­ing her in­to the air, killing her al­most in­stant­ly. Med­i­na, 46, of Ifill Lane, Pin­to Road, Ari­ma was pro­nounced dead at the St James Med­ical Fa­cil­i­ty. The in­ci­dent left res­i­dents of the area in­censed, not on­ly by the fact that an ap­par­ent act of reck­less dri­ving caused the death of the 46-year-old woman but the pos­si­bil­i­ty that his fel­low of­fi­cers may have at­tempt­ed to cov­er up their col­league’s reck­less­ness. Read more here

POLITICS

Special economic zones law for September

Government has given an international commitment for the establishment of a legislative framework for special economic zones by September this year, reported Trade Ministry Acting Permanent Secretary Frances Seignoret. She was speaking yesterday as the Public Accounts (Enterprises) Committee met with officials of the TT Free Zones Company and the Trade Ministry at the Parliament building. Seignoret said, in 2011, World Bank did a review of TT’s free zones and one of the recommendations spoke to the importance of a special economic zones regime. Read more here

PM wants Muslim heads to expose radicals

Heads of the Mus­lims com­mu­ni­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go have ap­par­ent­ly agreed to work with the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty forces to weed out rad­i­cals who are us­ing the “Ras­ta City” and “Mus­lims” gang ban­ners to con­duct crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young said yes­ter­day. Young’s com­ment came af­ter a meet­ing be­tween Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and Mus­lim lead­ers at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre in St Ann’s, where crime was one of the main top­ics. Young said it was clear the Gov­ern­ment doesn’t see re­li­gion as “play­ing any part in this from a na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty per­spec­tive.” “They are all crim­i­nal el­e­ments. We do not for a mo­ment buy in­to the nar­ra­tive that it is a bat­tle be­tween Rasta­far­i­an­ism and the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty, so we con­demn that. We have told the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty that if they pick up any in­tel­li­gence please let us know and that ap­plies to every­body in T&T,” Young said, adding they have asked the Mus­lim lead­ers to work along with them to fight crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty in T&T. Read more here

BUSINESS

Christy, the model employee

“I can do it. I can help,” is the mantra of Christy De Souza. The 28-year-old worked as a trainee at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), where her duties included sending and receiving e-mails; scanning documents; photocopying and shredding documents; packaging and labelling; making, receiving and forwarding calls; and retrieving and distributing stationery and other office items from the stock room. De Souza was born with Down Syndrome, a congenital disorder caused by a chromosome defect, resulting in intellectual impairment and physical abnormalities, including short stature and a broad facial profile. The disorder is caused by a mistake in cell division during the early development of the foetus. Read more here

Board members acting as auditors

Board mem­bers of the T&T Free Zones Com­pa­ny Ltd came un­der fire on Wednesday when they ap­peared be­fore a Par­lia­men­tary Com­mit­tee as they re­vealed they did not have an in­ter­nal au­di­tor and they were fill­ing the gap. Com­mit­tee chair­man Wade Mark said it was “amaz­ing” that the com­pa­ny was op­er­at­ing with­out an au­di­tor and de­mand­ed that the mat­ter be rec­ti­fied. The board mem­bers came un­der scruti­ny by the Pub­lic Ac­counts En­ter­pris­es Com­mit­tee (PAEC) as its ac­counts for 2012 to 2017 were ex­am­ined. Com­pa­ny chair­man Karen Tom Yew-Jar­dine said the com­pa­ny was prof­itable and had cre­at­ed 1,000 jobs from free zones com­pa­nies. Read more here

REGIONAL

‘Clear Picture Of What Happened’ - Investigators Launch Sweeping Probe Of Agencies Under Reid

Police and financial investigators have in their possession documentary evidence detailing alleged improprieties committed by sacked Education Minister and Senator Ruel Reid, law-enforcement sources have revealed. “We have collected several statements, and we have a clear picture of what happened, but we want to build a solid case,” a police source told The Gleaner. The disclosure came yesterday afternoon, hours after Reid, an educator, tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Andrew Holness amid swirling allegations of corruption involving entities that fall under the Ministry of Education. Following Reid’s sudden resignation, confirmation came that the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime (C-TOC) division and the Financial Investigation Division (FID) had commenced a wide-ranging probe into the allegations. The Caribbean Maritime University (CMU), the National Education Trust, and the HEART Trust, were some of the entities identified. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Christchurch mosque shootings: New Zealand to ban military style weapons

New Zealand will ban all types of semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles following the Christchurch attacks, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said. The announcement comes less than a week after 50 people were killed at two mosques, allegedly by a lone gunman. Ms Ardern said she expected new legislation to be in place by 11 April, saying: "Our history changed forever. Now, our laws will too." All of the dead have now been formally identified, police have confirmed. Australian Brenton Tarrant, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, has been charged with one murder and was expected to face further charges. However, police said on Thursday that the person he was formally accused of killing had been wrongly declared dead. Read more here

Theresa May to plead for Brexit delay at EU summit

All the signs are that Theresa May will get her Brexit delay – but only until May 22, dashing the Prime Minister's hopes of a three-month extension. This shorter delay is to ensure the UK leaves the bloc before European elections begin on May 23. (The UK believed it could stay in the EU until June 30 without taking part in the elections, as the new term of the European Parliament doesn't begin until July 1, but it seems that Brussels doesn't agree with this interpretation of the rules.) EU ambassadors met in Brussels yesterday evening to discuss the British request for a delay beyond the March 29 deadline, and a source said that while diplomats were minded in principle to grant the extension, opinion coalesced around the earlier date. Read more here

21st March 2019

Back