NEWS

Diplomat: TT, Guyana to co-operate on energy

Guyanese Acting High Commissioner Deborah Yaw foresees close co-operation with TT in areas like energy, as her country launches its Decade of Development as recently announced by President David Granger. She addressed a reception on Friday at the Guyanese High Commission in Port of Spain to celebrate her country’s golden jubilee as a co-operative republic. Yaw said Guyana’s economy is set to grow by some 86 per cent this year, powered by the discovery of eight billion barrels of oil plus natural gas, to become the world’s fastest growing economy this year. She said Guyana will focus on socio-economic development, protecting the environment and reorienting/diversifying the economy. That thrust will include the promotion of eco-tourism and renewable energy, Yaw added. Read more here

AG: Pt Fortin Highway CoE starts after Carnival

The Com­mis­sion of En­quiry (CoE) in­to land ac­qui­si­tion for the Point Fortin High­way is ex­pect­ed to start some­time af­ter Car­ni­val, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi said yes­ter­day. Al-Rawi, who com­ment­ed briefly while at a Fi­nan­cial Ac­tion Task Force (FATF) meet­ing over­seas, said the en­quiry will be held at the Wa­ter­front Com­plex in Port-of-Spain. The en­quiry, an­nounced by Gov­ern­ment last Ju­ly, is head­ed by re­tired Jus­tice Se­bastien Ven­tour. Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley had said last De­cem­ber that the CoE would start in Jan­u­ary “soon af­ter Christ­mas.” The probe stemmed from a Works Min­istry re­port done on com­pen­sa­tion for the project. The gov­ern­ment claimed some peo­ple were paid for land that was no longer need­ed, oth­ers re­ceived mil­li­on-dol­lar pay­ments and claimed more and some peo­ple in one house­hold were each com­pen­sat­ed for the same prop­er­ty. It was al­so al­leged that a per­son do­ing land val­u­a­tions “un­jus­ti­fi­ably” in­creased the val­ue of lands he had al­ready as­sessed. Read more here

POLITICS

PM: No 20 year wait for Bajan oil/gas

The Prime Minister hoped that oil and/or gas will be found in any cross-border TT-Barbados fields will be exploited long before the 20 year period spent on the now shelved Loran-Manatee deal between TT and Venezuela. Dr Rowley gave his views moments after signing an umbrella treaty with Bajan PM Mia Mottley for a unitised or joint exploration of hydrocarbons at the TT-Barbados maritime border. “Whatever (hydrocarbons) might exist might run across our borders. Seismic surveys are best done without restraint of borders. “If we do find hydrocarbons, as we anticipate that we would given the geological prospects we’ve been noting, it would be easier for us to exploit, to produce and to market any such product if we do it together.” Read more here

Panday: Why UNC MPs so riled up about my meeting?

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day is cu­ri­ous why some UNC MPs are “so riled” up about his moves to unite small­er par­ties to seek con­sti­tu­tion­al re­form and con­test gen­er­al elec­tions. He was com­ment­ing af­ter UNC MP Fuad Khan, Roodal Mooni­lal, Rudy In­dars­ingh and Su­ruj Ram­bachan frowned on his plan. He has is­sued a call for a meet­ing with small par­ties in Ch­agua­nas to­mor­row (Wednes­day). Pan­day said, “Re­spons­es (to the meet­ing) have been very good. But I can’t un­der­stand (UNC MPs) views. They may feel threat­ened they may no longer dom­i­nate the Par­lia­ment if a third force suc­ceeds in­clud­ing in seek­ing pro­por­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion. That wouldn’t al­low vot­ing along racial lines the way it is now.” He said to­mor­row’s meet­ing was open and wasn’t a “se­cret” meet­ing. Read more here

BUSINESS

T&T, Barbados sign energy deal

Time is of the essence, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley noted. “Because our economies demand that whatever hydrocarbons might be out there, we need to know about it quickly and exploit it efficiently, effectively and sustainably as quickly as possible,” Read more here

REGIONAL

Gov’t releases first report on oil production

In keeping with rules set out in the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Act 2019, the Ministry of Finance has released Guyana’s first Report on Petroleum Production and Revenues (RPPR) for the period of December 2019. The report was released on Monday and is based on various reports provided to the government by ExxonMobil with all reasonable efforts made to verify the accuracy of the report. It showed that a total of 163,673 barrels of the crude on the FPSO facility at the end of December 2019 was available to be lifted. However, during December 2019, no oil was lifted from Liza Destiny since the volume available for lifting was less than the standard cargo size of 1,000,000 barrels. Read more here

One Man, Many Victims - Mob Beats Accused After Alleged Sexual Assault Of 6-Y-O; His Sister And Daughter Also Claim Having Been Molested

There is heightened concern for the Jamaican sex offender registry to be publicly accessible after three victims – a daughter, her aunt and, since Sunday, a six-year-old girl – have confessed to being sexually assaulted, years apart, by the same man. This after the accused man, who is also a taxi operator and father to one of his victims and brother to another, has left a trail of mental scars in at least two Portmore, St Catherine, communities. The perpetrator, whose name The Gleaner has not published because he has not been charged, is currently under police guard at hospital recovering from a mob attack. He was beaten Sunday afternoon after allegedly abducting a six-year-old neighbour and fondling her in a decrepit back room. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Bloomberg qualifies for Wednesday's Democratic debate -- his first

Michael Bloomberg has qualified for Wednesday's Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, paving the way for the former New York mayor's first appearance on stage with his 2020 rivals. Bloomberg met the Democratic National Committee-mandated polling threshold on Tuesday with a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey finding the former New York mayor at 19% nationally. The result is Bloomberg's fourth poll above 10% nationally, which was the requirement from the DNC to qualify. Bloomberg is second in the poll behind Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who is well ahead of the rest of the field with 31% support. Bloomberg's presence on the debate stage injects a significant new variable into the event that falls just days before Nevadans caucus on Saturday. But the former New York mayor is skipping the first four contests, including Nevada, instead hoping to make his mark when several states vote on March 3, also known as Super Tuesday. Read more here

Coronavirus: Largest study suggests elderly and sick are most at risk

Health officials in China have published the first details of more than 44,000 cases of Covid-19, in the biggest study since the outbreak began. Data from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) finds that more than 80% of the cases have been mild, with the sick and elderly most at risk. The research also points to the high risk to medical staff. A hospital director in the city of Wuhan died from the virus on Tuesday. Liu Zhiming, 51, was the director of the Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan - one of the leading hospitals in the virus epicentre. He is one of the most senior health officials to die so far. Hubei, the province Wuhan is in, is the worst affected province in the country. The report by the CCDC shows the province's death rate is 2.9% compared with 0.4% in the rest of the country. The findings put the overall death rate of the Covid-19 virus at 2.3%. China's latest official figures released on Tuesday put the overall death toll at 1,868 and 72,436 infections. Read more here

18th February 2020

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