NEWS

Stop cycle of ‘babies having babies’

“The cycle of babies having babies, which has contributed to a lot of ills in our society, must be broken,” says Rennie Thomas-Caines, dean at Queen’s Royal College. Thomas-Caines was among other speakers at the Positive Community, Positive Role Models symposium held at the Enterprise Government Primary School on Saturday. The event was hosted in commemoration of International Men’s Day and International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Read more here

2nd CoP death threat suspect sent to St Ann’s

An El So­cor­ro, San Juan man was sent to the St Ann’s Hos­pi­tal for a psy­chi­atric eval­u­a­tion yes­ter­day, af­ter he be­came the third per­son to ap­pear in court charged with mak­ing threats against the life of Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith. Keny­on Lewis, 33, ap­peared be­fore Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trate Sa­nara Toon-Mc­Quilkin charged with mis­use of a tele­phone. Just as she had done with that last per­son who ap­peared be­fore her on a sim­i­lar charge, Toon-Mc­Quilkin re­mand­ed Lewis, a res­i­dent of Singh Trace, in­to cus­tody at the St Ann’s Hos­pi­tal for an eval­u­a­tion. The court heard that around 3.30 am last Fri­day, an E999 op­er­a­tor at the Com­mand Cen­tre re­ceived a call from a man who threat­ened the Com­mis­sion­er’s life. An in­ves­ti­ga­tion was launched and Lewis was ar­rest­ed in a bar in El So­cor­ro lat­er in the day. The charge was laid by Sgt Williams, of the Port-of-Spain Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment. Read more here

POLITICS

Young pleased with CAL’s turnaround

National Security Minister Stuart Young said that the only way an airline like Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) can compete in the international market and profit was to acquire better stocks. Last week CAL announced its decision to add 12 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft to its fleet. Speaking with reporters at the Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce’s Christmas dinner at the Passage To Asia restaurant on Saturday, Young said he was pleased with the airline’s financial turnaround after a decade. He also maintained that CAL was completely different to Petrotrin and TSTT. Read more here

Energy Ministry hunts 50 engineering grads

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Franklin Khan is on the hunt for 50 en­gi­neer­ing grad­u­ates to fill spe­cial­ist roles with­in the min­istry. Row­ley made the an­nounce­ment as he de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress at the In­sti­tute of Elec­tri­cal and Elec­tron­ics En­gi­neers' (IEEE) Festschrift Con­fer­ence at the Hy­att Re­gency on Mon­day evening. Speak­ing to the crowd of en­gi­neer­ing prac­ti­tion­ers and revered spe­cial­ists, Row­ley said tax­pay­ers had in­vest­ed a lot of mon­ey in the younger gen­er­a­tion, but de­spite many of them at­tain­ing their qual­i­fi­ca­tions they are lost with­in the sys­tem and many are now em­ployed. Read more here

BUSINESS

ICATT: International standards need to become law

The Coun­cil of the In­sti­tute of Char­tered Ac­coun­tants of T&T (ICATT) is hop­ing pub­lic leg­is­la­tion will soon come on stream cov­er­ing a wider range of rules and reg­u­la­tions. This will en­able greater trans­paren­cy, es­pe­cial­ly as T&T strug­gles to im­prove its cor­rup­tion per­cep­tion rank­ing, the group said. ICATT is the body that rep­re­sents the coun­try’s tax pro­fes­sion­als and is a ma­jor stake­hold­er in tax ad­min­is­tra­tion. “The coun­cil recog­nis­es the lim­i­ta­tions of the leg­is­la­tion un­der which we cur­rent­ly op­er­ate. That is the pri­vate leg­is­la­tion and its lim­i­ta­tions. Read more here

Lok Jack and Ahamad in settlement talks with TTSEC

The key shareholders of Guardian Holdings Ltd (GHL)—businessman Arthur Lok Jack and Imtiaz Ahamad—are in settlement talks with the T&T Securities and Exchange Commission (TTSEC). Read more here

REGIONAL

Narrow Escape! - Trainee Pilot Walks Away From Helicopter After Crash-Landing

Investigators at the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority, along with the army, have initiated a probe into yesterday's emergency landing by a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) trainee pilot, who narrowly escaped serious injuries when a Bell 206 helicopter he was flying came crashing down in the vicinity of Dunbeholden in St Catherine. The pilot, a trainee at The Caribbean Military Aviation School, walked away with no major injuries from the twisted metal remains of the training helicopter, which came down about one mile south of Caribbean Estates and even closer to the Phoenix Park community. With the JDF personnel imposing restrictions as to how close the media could get to the helicopter, it was difficult to assess the damage to the Bell 206. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Theresa May's Brexit deal is doomed - Sir Michael Fallon

Theresa May's Brexit deal is "doomed" and must be renegotiated, ex-defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon has said. Sir Michael launched a scathing attack on the proposed EU agreement, saying it was the "worst of all worlds". Asked whether Mrs May should stay on as Tory leader if it was rejected by MPs, he said it was "up to my colleagues". The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said he was "not one of the usual suspects" on Europe and his remarks showed the depth of Conservative opposition to the deal. Parliament will vote on whether to accept or reject the terms of the UK's withdrawal and future relations negotiated by Mrs May on 11 December. Read more here

Trump casts doubt on UK's ability to trade with US post-Brexit

US President Donald Trump has added himself to the chorus of skeptics doubting British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan, saying it isn't clear if the agreement will allow a US-UK trading partnership. "I think we have to take a look at seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade. Because you know, right now, if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us," Trump said on the White House's South Lawn. All 27 remaining European Union leaders approved Britain's Brexit agreement on Sunday but May is yet to convince UK Parliament to sign off on the deal. Read more here

27th November 2018

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