NEWS

Murder trial to re-start after ten years

Ten years after six men were arrested and charged with the murder of Cepep worker Rus­sell An­toine, they accepted that their case had to be restarted before acting Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle yesterday morning. Chicki Portillo, Anton Cambridge, Levi Joseph, Akini James, Israel Lara and Kareem Gomez appeared before Earle-Caddle in the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Eighth Court, where they were told their case was to be re-started. State prosecutor Kelly Ann Thompson said 61 statements were to be tendered and 12 witnesses for cross-examination. Read more here

Fuel suppliers demand up front payment

State-owned Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny could be on a col­li­sion course with the Gov­ern­ment and State-en­ter­prise Na­tion­al Pe­tro­le­um Mar­ket­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed as it is in­sist­ing it must get time­ly pay­ments from the Min­istry of Fi­nance for the fu­el sub­sidy and wants NP to pay for its fu­el on time. The com­pa­ny’s chair­man Wil­fred Es­pinet told Guardian Me­dia that it is a strug­gle to get the Gov­ern­ment and its rep­re­sen­ta­tives to un­der­stand that it has to pay its bills on time be­cause Paria and the oth­er com­pa­nies that have emerged from the clo­sure of Petrotrin, must be run as a busi­ness and be prof­itable. Read more here

POLITICS

Abolish SEA, fire none-performers

Political leader of the Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) Phillip Edward Alexander said leaders and politicians know the education system is filled with corruption and racket. Educational Facilities Company Limited is corrupt, evident in what’s happening with the scenario of school books. “The PEP plans to abolish the SEA exams and make all schools into ‘ten year’ schools,” Alexander said. Speaking at the second anniversary of PEP in Ste Madeleine on Saturday, he said the state of the country is a direct result of what the people have tolerated for the past 36 years. Read more here

CoP: UK training to help prosecute criminals

A new colour-cod­ed threat alert sys­tem and train­ing for po­lice of­fi­cers to pros­e­cute cas­es are some of the im­me­di­ate out­comes of a week-long vis­it to the Unit­ed King­dom by Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith. Grif­fith en­gaged in “sev­er­al meet­ings with law en­force­ment of­fi­cials from vary­ing de­part­ments,” ac­cord­ing to a state­ment on his In­sta­gram Page. Grif­fith, along with Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, and Chief of De­fence Staff Hay­den Pritchard met with of­fi­cials from Scot­land Yard, the Joint Ter­ror­ism Analy­sis Cen­tre, the Na­tion­al Cy­ber Crime Cen­tre, Met­ro­pol­i­tan Po­lice Train­ing Fa­cil­i­ty among oth­er agen­cies. Read more here

BUSINESS

GHL independents approve NCB offer

Independent directors of Westmoorings-based insurance company, Guardian Holdings Limited (GHL), have recommended that all GHL shareholders accept NCB Financial Group’s (NCB) of US$2.79 per share takeover bid. Read more here

REGIONAL

Convict Flight - Britain To Deport Dozens Of J’cans On Chartered Plane

Authorities in the United Kingdom (UK) have signalled that they are ready to deport dozens of Jamaicans who were convicted there for a range of criminal offences. Jamaican officials revealed yesterday that the group of 50 is expected to arrive in the island on February 6 on board a special chartered flight. They will be accompanied by 190 British security personnel, law-enforcement sources revealed. There was no information up to late yesterday about the crimes for which they were convicted. Jamaica’s National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang confirmed to The Gleaner that he signed a document last Wednesday giving approval for the aircraft to land in Jamaica. He indicated, too, that the police have been alerted. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Time is running out and Theresa May's Plan B for Brexit is Plan A all over again

Less than a week after her Brexit plan was defeated in the House of Commons by a record number of votes, Theresa May needed to have something substantial to tell lawmakers when she returned to Parliament on Monday. The UK Prime Minister has spent the last few days in talks with lawmakers from all parties to try to break the stalemate on Britain's withdrawal from the European Union -- with the notable exception of the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn. Read more here

Taliban militants kill dozens at Afghan intelligence base

Dozens of Afghan security personnel were killed by Taliban militants who overran a military intelligence base near Kabul, officials have confirmed. At least 43 people were killed and 54 injured in the attack, the NDS intelligence service told the BBC. Insurgents blew their way into the base using a car bomb before opening fire. Some reports put the toll at over 100. It is one of the deadliest attacks on the secret service and follows a string of battlefield setbacks for the army. Monday's attack on the National Directorate for Security (NDS) base in central Wardak province came hours before the Taliban held another round of peace talks with US diplomats in Qatar. Read more here

22nd January 2019

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