NEWS

DeNovo makes first gas delivery to NGC

DeNovo Energy Ltd has made the first natural gas delivery from its Iguana Field in the south-western coast of Trinidad, to the National Gas Company, said in a release. DeNovo, part the Swiss-based Proman Group, is now TT’s fifth natural gas producer, and has committed to delivering 80 million standard cubic feet of gas per day for use by petrochemical plants on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate. Iguana is the first west coast natural gas field to be developed in TT, and the first offshore gas development to be completed utilising a local jack up rig. Read more here

2nd illegal Greenvale tenant evicted

An­oth­er fam­i­ly liv­ing in the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion’s (HDC) Green­vale Park De­vel­op­ment in La Hor­quet­ta has been served an evic­tion no­tice af­ter be­ing found to be il­le­gal­ly oc­cu­py­ing a house there. The evic­tion comes just two weeks af­ter the Sorzano fam­i­ly was evict­ed from the de­vel­op­ment af­ter be­ing found to be liv­ing there il­le­gal­ly by an HDC team which had gone to set up a flood re­lief cen­tre for res­i­dents af­fect­ed by Oc­to­ber’s dev­as­tat­ing flood­ing. Yes­ter­day, HDC chair­man New­man George said the lat­est find was now forc­ing them to do a de­vel­op­ment to de­vel­op­ment au­dit tak­ing stock of their as­sets. George said the lat­est fam­i­ly was served with a no­tice to quit the premis­es af­ter they failed to pro­duce any doc­u­men­ta­tion prov­ing own­er­ship. Read more here

POLITICS

Fewer psychiatric patients at SFGH

There has been a more than four per cent decrease in the number of patients at the San Fernando General Hospital psychiatric ward and an independent committee has found no need for relocation, says Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh. He was responding to a question in the Senate yesterday from Opposition Senator Wade Mark on reports that the ward needed to be relocated because of an increase in the patient population. Read more here

JSC told high abuse at elderly homes

Hard times for the el­der­ly in some geri­atric homes for the aged. Six cas­es in homes were re­port­ed to po­lice to in­ves­ti­gate crim­i­nal in­tent, three homes have been closed, 30 oth­ers are in “ex­treme con­di­tions of non-com­pli­ance” and out of 217 such homes reg­is­tered with the Health Min­istry, on­ly one is li­censed. Worse, out of the un­li­censed homes, nine re­ceive state fund­ing. These and oth­er “eye-open­ers” were pro­vid­ed by So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Health Min­istry of­fi­cials who were grilled yes­ter­day by Par­lia­ment’s Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee on So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion. Read more here

BUSINESS

Come together

How can we reform state enterprises with empathy? TSTT has let go of 500 people. Last week, the Central Bank announced the sale of Clico and British American’s insurance assets. This follows the closure of Petrotrin’s refinery and the announced upcoming sale of CL Financial’s Omani methanol plant. Could this be the start of even greater reform of our state enterprises; and of a changed role for the State? Read more here

REGIONAL

'I Punched Him In The Face 4 Times' - Female Pastor Says She Beat Man For Repeatedly Abusing His Wife

There are times when talk is not enough, and strong, maybe even controversial actions, have to be taken. No one knows this better than Reverend Annett Brown, who admitted that she punched a male member of her church in the face several times because he was repeatedly abusing his wife. Brown, who was representing the Jamaica Council of Churches at a public forum on Violence Against Women at the Terra Nova Hotel in St Andrew yesterday, said that while she was not glorifying her actions, she would never condone women she came in contact with staying in abusive relationships. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Sentinelese tribe thought to have killed American 'world's most isolated'

The tribe that appears to have killed American John Allen Chau on remote North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal is one of a number of vanishing peoples sealed off from the rest of the world. The Sentinelese, as they're known, are protected by Indian law to preserve their way of life and protect them from modern illnesses to which they have no immunity. Laws banning outsiders from going within five nautical miles of the island are also there to protect strangers because the tribe, which has lived on the island for tens of thousands of years, has a history of forcefully repelling outsiders. Their numbers have declined in recent years, but accurate counts are hard to obtain because the Sentinelese can only be observed from a distance due to the dangers in approaching the tribe. Read more here

Brexit: Draft agreement on future relationship 'agreed'

The EU and UK have agreed a draft agreement on their future relationship, paving the way for a Brexit deal to be finalised this weekend. The political declaration - outlining how trade, security and other issues will work - has been "agreed in principle", the European Council says. London and Brussels have already agreed the draft terms of the UK's exit from the EU on 29 March 2019. Theresa May will make a statement to MPs later on Thursday. Downing Street said the prime minister was currently briefing cabinet ministers on the draft agreement in a conference call. Read more here

22nd November 2018

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