NEWS

Company claims sabotage at rural field

State-owned oil company Petrotrin has reportedly discovered three acts of sabotage at one of its rural production fields. The company was thrust into the national spotlight after its board decided to shut down the refinery and retrench all the workers. The company is scheduled to cease operations on November 30. In a media statement, Petrotrin said at 11.45 pm on Tuesday, production personnel doing routine checks at its Central Los Bajos Field discovered “three incidents” at the North Palo Seco Tank Battery No 1. Investigations later revealed the three incidents were the result of sabotage, it said. Read more here

5 killed in 24-hour span

The lives of five fam­i­lies were for­ev­er changed by crim­i­nals who left a trail of an­guish on Tues­day night when they took the lives of five men in sep­a­rate in­ci­dents.
Rock bassist Shiv­an Ramd­hanie, Rio Claro fa­ther Clifton “Bess” Jef­fery, Navet farmer Lal­be­har­ry Ra­moutar and Su­per­in­ten­dent of Pris­ons Wayne Jack­son and Ju­ma McK­ell were all mur­dered with­in 24 hours. In the lat­est in­ci­dent, Ju­ma McK­ell died at the Ari­ma Health Fa­cil­i­ty hours af­ter be­ing shot sev­er­al times about the body at Phase Four, La Hor­quet­ta, around 4 pm yes­ter­day. Read more here

POLITICS

Full speed ahead with Alutech facility

After being in abeyance for some eight years at significant financial loss to TT, the Prime Minister yesterday declared the long-awaited Alutech Research and Development Facility has finally resumed, “full speed ahead.” He was delivering the feature address at the launch of the $87 million aluminium facility at Tamana InTech Park, Wallerfield. Dr Rowley said the project, which is expected to become operational in the next 18 months, would contribute significantly to TT’s economic diversification thrust. Read more here

T&T fighting crime scourge - Young

With the high-pro­file mur­der of act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent of Pris­ons Wayne Jack­son and three oth­ers overnight on Tues­day, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has ad­mit­ted that the scourge of crim­i­nal­i­ty con­tin­u­ing at a pace that is un­ac­cept­able. But Young gave the as­sur­ance that there will be a re­newed and re­ju­ve­nat­ed ef­fort by the po­lice who will al­so be part of a new joint In­ter-Agency Task Force of all law en­force­ment agen­cies, in­clud­ing the T&T De­fence Force, SSA, in­tel­li­gence agen­cies and the T&T Prison Ser­vice. Read more here

BUSINESS

Spotlight on CinemaOne

BUSINESS power couple Brian and Ingrid Jahra, chairman and CEO respectively of CinemaOne Ltd which operates IMAX Trinidad and Gemstone, have some big ambitions for their seven year old company. They have already made history by becoming the first small and medium enterprise (SME) listing on the TT Stock Exchange with the launch of their initial public offering (IPO) on September 17. But the company is also planning to expand into south Trinidad and to extend their interests into the US. Business Day chatted with the Jahras about the IPO and the company in a recent interview at Gemstone, One Woodbrook Place, Port of Spain. Read more here

Mariano: Deal with NIS shortfall now, not later

For­mer Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance Mar­i­ano Browne says he was “shocked” by Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert’s com­ments that the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Fund has more than $20 bil­lion and would not be a prob­lem to­day but 35 years from now. Speak­ing to the Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day Browne rub­bished the Min­is­ter's claims say­ing "the as­set prob­lem of the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Scheme (NIS) is a prob­lem to­day not to­mor­row.” Ref­er­enc­ing the Ninth Ac­tu­ar­i­al Re­view of the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Sys­tem as of June 30, 2013, Browne not­ed that the re­port warned that “start­ing in 2019,” the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board would have to start sell­ing as­sets to pay ex­ist­ing pen­sions, “2019, that is next year." Read more here

REGIONAL

Pushback For PEP - Parents, Teachers Pleased With Rescheduled Date Of Performance Task Exam

The decision by the education ministry to push back the Performance Task component of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination until March 2019 is being praised by both parents and teachers. It was originally scheduled to be done in December. Lennon Richards, president of the National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ), is also lauding the ministry for implementing a PEP website. He said that this would place parents in a better position to inform themselves and to prepare their children for the exam. Richards said that he believed that all the stakeholders would now have adequate time and resources to prepare. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

The Paris park where Nigerian women are forced into prostitution

A row of dirty vans is parked on a broad, tree-lined avenue in the outskirts of Paris. In the dark of night, fluttering candles light up the faces of the women in the front seats. None of them wear more than their underwear. Others, wearing miniskirts, stand outside underneath street lamps, facing out onto the empty road. Nadège was one of these women before she managed to escape. She is softly spoken. "Even now I don't have hope for myself," she says. "My past already destroyed my future." Read more here

Russia's GRU 'targeted chemical weapons watchdog OPCW'

Dutch security services say they expelled four Russians over a cyber attack plot targeting the global chemical weapons watchdog.

The operation by Russia's GRU military intelligence allegedly targeted the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons in The Hague in April. The OPCW has been probing the chemical attack on a Russian ex-spy in the UK. The allegations are part of an organised push-back against alleged Russian cyber attacks around the world. The Netherlands has summoned the Russian ambassador for an explanation. "By revealing this Russian action, we send out a clear message: Russia must stop this," said Dutch Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten. Read more here

4th October 2018

Back