NEWS

Galleons Passage completes maiden voyage

Works and Transports Minister Rohan Sinanan says he hopes the first few trips of the Galleons Passage will restore confidence in the seabridge from Port of Spain to Scarborough. Speaking to media this morning, before the maiden commercial voyage of TT’s newest ferry, Sinanan said he was happy to prove naysayers wrong. The Galleons Passage departed Port of Spain at 6.07 am and was scheduled to arrive in Scarborough at 11 am. Sinanan said the vessel, which is built to facilitate up to 700 passengers, had approximately 100 passengers aboard for the maiden commercial voyage. Read more here

No turning back on Petrotrin now—Espinet

Petrotrin chair­man Wil­fred Es­pinet says there will be no turn­ing back on the de­ci­sion to shut down the com­pa­ny and ter­mi­nate work­ers de­spite yes­ter­day’s in­junc­tion grant­ed by the In­dus­tri­al Court in favour of the Oil­fields Work­ers Trade Union. In fact, he says the com­pa­ny is pre­pared to go all the way to the Privy coun­cil if it has to. Speak­ing to the T&T Guardian hours af­ter the court’s de­ci­sion, Es­pinet said Petrotrin’s at­tor­neys will file an ap­peal to­day, adding they hope to get a hear­ing im­me­di­ate­ly. He said the in­junc­tion on­ly stops the com­pa­ny from is­su­ing let­ters to work­ers who are rep­re­sent­ed by the OW­TU, but turn­ing back is not an op­tion be­cause the plan to shut down op­er­a­tions “has been ef­fect­ed, it ef­fec­tive­ly means we have stopped bring­ing in ma­te­ri­als.” Read more here

POLITICS

Tewarie: ‘Will cooking gas go up?’

The prospect of a hike in the price of cooking gas was raised by Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie yesterday in the House of Representatives’ budget debate. Saying Petrotrin will no longer pay a $170 million annual subsidy on the consumer cost of cooking gas known as LPG, he asked if the Government will subsidise it, or would Phoenix Park Gas Processors, a viable source of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) recently cited by Energy Minister Franklin Khan. Finance Minister Colm Imbert muttered something from his seat in reply. Read more here

Deyalsingh: More delivery of CDAP drugs

In or­der to ease short­ages af­fect­ing the pub­lic, de­liv­ery of CDAP drugs will be once a month in­stead of every two months and moves are al­so be­ing made to change the Blood Bank sys­tem to a 100 per cent vol­un­teer sys­tem. Al­so, Gov­ern­ment will have to over­come a Zi­ka in­fec­tion im­age if it wants to de­vel­op the San­dals To­ba­go re­sort—par­tic­u­lar­ly for "cou­ples" tourism. Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh spoke about the is­sues dur­ing yes­ter­day's 2019 bud­get de­bate in Par­lia­ment. Read more here

Imbert: Economy will suffer if Petrotrin is prevented from moving forward

Finance Minister Colm Imbert has warned that Trinidad and Tobago’s economy will suffer “profound implications” if Petrotrin is prevented from moving forward with its restructuring plan. Read more here

BUSINESS

Oh Ghee! the matter is settled

A legal battle between the sole distributor of Cow Brand Ghee in Trinidad and Tobago and another company that recently began the importation of a similar product for sale on the market has been settled. Read more here

REGIONAL

Not Changing Course - Health Ministry Remains Adamant With Sugary Drink Message

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton is refusing to tweak the message in his ministry's current campaign, which strongly discourages citizens from consuming excess sugar. Last week, Professor Errol Morrison, honorary president of the Diabetes Association, questioned the clarity of the message during an interview on RJR's 'Beyond the Headlines'. He said he believed there should be some adjustments to the campaign, as the consumption of sugar alone does not contribute to diabetes. The ministry has been strongly pushing for citizens to avoid overconsumption of sugary products in a bid to prevent non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Interpol chief's arrest shows one-party rule is the only important thing to China

Beijing's forced disappearance of one of China's most prominent international officials shows the government appears ready to sacrifice anything, including its international reputation, to safeguard the Chinese Communist Party. Meng Hongwei, head of the international policing organization Interpol, vanished after he flew back to China in late September, only for Beijing to announce in recent days he was being held for corruption. The first Chinese official to be reach the top of Interpol, Meng's appointment just two years ago had been seen as a victory for Beijing and was widely celebrated in state media. Read more here

Jamal Khashoggi: Turkey to search Saudi consulate

Turkey says it will conduct a search of Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul over the missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The country's foreign ministry said Saudi Arabia was "open to co-operation" and a requested search of the building could now go ahead as part of the investigation. Mr Khashoggi was last seen visiting the consul last week and Turkey says he may have been murdered there. Saudi Arabia denies the suggestion. It says the journalist left the consulate shortly after arriving, while Turkey says he was not seen leaving the building. Read more here

9th October 2018

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