NEWS

UWI to help develop economy

Prof Brian Copeland said today his vision for the University of the West Indies' St Augustine campus was to help in the development of the national economy and make it more sustainable, through microenterprise. Speaking at UWI’s consultation with the private sector, state enterprises and government at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port of Spain, Copeland said he believed his team had successfully and thoughtfully set up “the preconditions for take-off” in innovation and entrepreneurship at UWI St Augustine. Read more here

2 student deaths spark meningitis alert

The South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (SWRHA) is on height­ened alert af­ter two chil­dren from dif­fer­ent schools in South Trinidad died from sus­pect­ed cas­es of menin­gi­tis. While the cause of the deaths has not been con­firmed, the SWRHA has en­sured pub­lic health mea­sures have been put in place at the schools be­cause the dis­ease is con­ta­gious. The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has con­firmed one of the chil­dren was a stu­dent of the Fifth Com­pa­ny Bap­tist Pri­ma­ry School, but al­so made no men­tion of a sus­pect­ed case at any oth­er school. How­ev­er, a min­istry source said yes­ter­day that they were un­aware of a sec­ond stu­dent dy­ing from sus­pect­ed menin­gi­tis. The SWRHA al­so did not iden­ti­fy the schools in the re­lease. It stat­ed, “Due to the con­ta­gious na­ture of the dis­ease, of­fi­cials from the South-West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty and the Of­fice of the Coun­ty Med­ical Of­fi­cer of Health for Coun­ty Vic­to­ria vis­it­ed the chil­dren’s schools to en­sure that the pub­lic health mea­sures have been put in place and sur­veil­lance con­tin­ues. Read more here

POLTICS

UNC MP: Govt favours Venies over Africans

The Government’s grant of one year of residency to Venezuelan migrants stands in stark contrast to its treatment of migrants from Africa, alleged Naparima MP Rodney Charles. In a statement, he claimed the Government’s foreign policy is incoherent and in shambles, especially regarding its approach to Africans. “This Rowley-led Government must explain why they are willing to make special allowances for Venezuelans to access jobs, education and health care, yet this same policy will not be extended to asylum seekers from Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone – all Commonwealth countries. Read more here

Stop Paria Fuel plans until after election

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley's Gov­ern­ment to halt any busi­ness plans it has for the Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny un­til af­ter the gen­er­al elec­tion next year. Speak­ing at the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress' Mon­day Night Fo­rum at the El Do­ra­do West Sec­ondary school, the Siparia MP said con­flict­ing mes­sages were be­ing sent about the com­pa­ny and the way for­ward for the closed down Petrotrin re­fin­ery as­sets. "(Wil­fred) Es­pinet says it’s for sale, Franklyn Khan to­day says it’s not for sale. Who is telling the truth? I put to you tonight that it seems that the Gov­ern­ment does not have any idea what they are do­ing with Petrotrin," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said. She was re­fer­ring to En­er­gy Min­is­ter Franklin Khan’s de­nial of yes­ter­day de­nial of Trinidad Pe­tro­le­um Hold­ings chair­man Wil­fred Es­pinet’s claim that Paria Fu­el is to be sold. Es­pinet had made the claim over the week­end but Khan on Mon­day de­nied this, say­ing he want­ed to “make it clear that the di­vest­ment of Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny is not with­in the cur­rent man­date giv­en by the Gov­ern­ment to Trinidad Pe­tro­le­um Hold­ings Lim­it­ed.” Read more here

BUSINESS

T&T behind industrial revolution—Trade Minister

Trade Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon said T&T is “far be­hind” the fourth in­dus­tri­al rev­o­lu­tion which is cur­rent­ly tak­ing place. “T&T has to find ways to catch up and we need to look at strength­en­ing our var­i­ous ecosys­tems hence the rea­son why mi­cro and small busi­ness­es are so im­por­tant,” the min­is­ter said dur­ing the con­sul­ta­tion be­tween the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), the pri­vate sec­tor, state en­ter­pris­es and the Gov­ern­ment at the Hy­att Re­gency ho­tel on Mon­day. And ac­cord­ing to Sir Hi­lary Beck­les, UWI Vice Chan­cel­lor, a short­age of skilled labour has been linked to the slug­gish re­sponse of the econ­o­my. Cou­pled with this, he said, is the lack of an align­ment be­tween the re­search and pro­duc­tion sys­tems and the pol­i­cy frame­work of the State re­gard­ing tax in­cen­tives. Read more here

REGIONAL

Disarm Them! - FLA To Carry Out Major Revocation Of Gun Licences Out West

Several licensed firearm holders in western Jamaica could lose their guns in short order as the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) is not satisfied, based on alleged flaws in their character and other disqualifying factors, that they meet the criteria to enjoy such a privilege. The decision, which will impact several small business operators with questionable backgrounds and at least one popular politician, was taken in the aftermath of a high-level meeting between the top brass of the FLA and the police hierarchy in Area One, where concerns were raised about the character and background of some persons with licensed firearms. “The FLA’s top brass met with the Police High Command in western Jamaica over last weekend and very serious concerns were raised about some persons with licensed firearms who are said to be involved in illegitimate activities,” said Shane Dalling, chief executive officer (CEO) of the FLA. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Experts say there were similarities in the Ethiopian Airlines and the Lion Air crashes. What were they?

When the Federal Aviation Administration announced it was grounding all Boeing 737 Max planes, the agency said it had identified similarities between last week's Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air crash in Indonesia six months earlier. The Ethiopian Minister of Transport reiterated that point on Sunday, saying preliminary data recovered from the black boxes of the crash in Ethiopia showed similarities to the Air Lion crash. Neither agency provided many specifics. So how were the two crashes similar? Read more here

Christchurch shootings: Ardern vows never to say gunman's name

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has vowed never to say the name of the Christchurch mosque gunman. "He sought many things from his act of terror, but one was notoriety - that is why you will never hear me mention his name," Ms Ardern said in an emotional address at New Zealand's parliament. Last Friday's shootings at two mosques left 50 people dead and dozens wounded. Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a self-described white supremacist, has been charged with murder. The prime minister addressed a special meeting on Tuesday, opening her speech by using the Arabic greeting "Al-Salaam Alaikum", which in English means "peace be upon you". Read more here

19th March 2019

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