NEWS

Calder Hart’s Las Alturas trial starts in his absence

Former Udecott chairman Calder Hart’s challenge of the Las Alturas Commission of Inquiry’s findings of its report on the controversial housing development has started in his absence. Hart took legal action in February 2017,after the report, which was laid in Parliament in September the year before, said he should be held responsible for the failed $26 million towers. The trial of the former Udecott boss’s claim against the commission began yesterday before Justice David Harris at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain. Read more here

Sanctions will apply if child refused medical help - SWRHA

CEO of the South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (SWRHA) Kei­th Mc­Don­ald is promis­ing that if any em­ploy­ee is found cul­pa­ble in deny­ing a 13-month-old ba­by care at the Mara­bel­la Health Cen­tre on Fri­day, he or she will be sanc­tioned. Mc­Don­ald said he had a pre­lim­i­nary re­port be­fore him yes­ter­day, but there were still out­stand­ing de­tails that are need­ed. He said the in­ves­ti­ga­tor will be speak­ing with staff at the health cen­tre soon. “We are do­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion be­cause if any­body was wrong in the process, the sanc­tions will ap­ply. The same way we will de­fend our doc­tors and nurs­es if they do the right thing, if they do wrong, it is the same way they will have to an­swer and face the con­se­quences. Read more here

POLITICS

Paray: Combat sex-abuse in rural areas

Mayaro MP Rushton Paray said rampant sexual abuse in TT should be treated as a “medical epidemic,” as he called for more help to combat the scourge in far-flung areas such as his rural constituency. He said, “We need a more aggressive approach in these rural communities.” He lamented that while governments and companies such as bpTT and Shell have run parenting programmes in these communities, sadly the families who are most vulnerable to being affected by sexual abuse are the ones least likely to attend. “The targeted people don’t come. The stigma prevents them.” Read more here

Devant: Illegitimate JLSC members should resign

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) ac­tivist De­vant Ma­haraj is call­ing on ju­di­cial of­fi­cers who re­ceived their ap­point­ments, while the Ju­di­cial and Le­gal Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (JLSC) was im­prop­er­ly con­sti­tut­ed, to re­sign. Ma­haraj made the call dur­ing a press con­fer­ence at the Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel in Port-of-Spain, hours af­ter the Privy Coun­cil up­held his con­sti­tu­tion­al law­suit over the com­po­si­tion of the five-mem­ber com­mit­tee. While he ad­mit­ted that the judg­ment did not in­val­i­date pre­vi­ous ap­point­ments made by the JLSC, when it was im­prop­er­ly con­sti­tut­ed, Ma­haraj still main­tained that the ju­di­cial of­fi­cers should take a “moral de­ci­sion” to re­sign. Read more here

BUSINESS

NIF pays out millions

The Na­tion­al In­vest­ment Fund Hold­ings Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (NIF) has made its first dis­tri­b­u­tion in­ter­est pay­ment of $122.2 mil­lion, rep­re­sent­ing the first se­mi-an­nu­al coupon pay­ment on the three se­ries of its four bil­lion dol­lar bond. NIF was in­cor­po­rat­ed last May as a hold­ing com­pa­ny, ini­tial­ly with high qual­i­ty eq­ui­ty in­vest­ments from sev­er­al com­pa­nies in­clud­ing Colo­nial Life Com­pa­ny (Trinidad) Lim­it­ed (CLI­CO), CLI­CO In­vest­ment Bank (CIB) which is now in liq­ui­da­tion as well as An­gos­tu­ra Hold­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (AHL), Re­pub­lic Fi­nance Hold­ings Lim­it­ed (RFHL) and One Caribbean Me­dia lim­it­ed (OCM). Read more here

REGIONAL

Hell Of A Day - Valiant Staff Team Up With Firefighters To Save ‘Bread And Butter’ As Blazes Scorch Capital City

Amid a crescendo of crackling and soot-choked air, firefighters battled bravely as a section of Jamaica Packaging Industries (JPI) on Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston, was transformed into a furnace yesterday, millions of dollars worth of stock going up in smoke. But even in the midst of tragedy, workers at the company – and even those from the nearby Petrojam oil refinery – banded together, rallying with buckets of water and dousing rolls of paper in a desperate bid to stop the blaze from spreading. The fire started some time after 3 p.m. yesterday and spread rapidly as the blustery winds whipped the flames out of control. It is theorised that the blaze began when garbage, lit in an abandoned car sent sparks flying. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Venezuela crisis: Maduro condemns 'extremist' Trump

Venezuela's embattled President Nicolás Maduro has called Donald Trump's government a "gang of extremists" and blamed the US for his country's crisis. In an interview with the BBC, Mr Maduro said he would not allow humanitarian aid into Venezuela as it was a way for the US to justify an intervention. "They are warmongering in order to take over Venezuela," he said. The US and most Western governments have recognised opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president. Read more here

How bad is China's economic slump? It's impossible to tell

Companies and executives around the world are desperately trying to gauge the severity of China's economic slowdown. But getting a clear picture is very difficult. Growth in the world's second-biggest economy cooled last year to its lowest level in almost three decades, according to government data. Top global brands including Apple (AAPL) and Caterpillar (CAT) have blamed weakness in China for their disappointing earnings. The situation could be even bleaker than China's official statistics suggest, according to many analysts. "The Chinese published GDP numbers are absolute garbage," said Leland Miller, CEO of advisory firm China Beige Book. "It's certainly the consensus that these numbers are unreliable." Read more here

12th February 2019

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