NEWS

Mother, sons chopped, beaten

Bandits broke into a house at Espinozar Avenue, Enterprise, Chaguanas, and chopped, beat and robbed a 62-year-old mother and her two adult sons on Monday. The woman and her sons, police said, are now in serious condition at the Eric Williams Sciences Complex. Police said the woman was chopped on her head while her sons' ages 32 and 35 were chopped to their chest and hands. According to a police report, at about 2 am, two men broke into the family’s home by prying open the front door. Read more here

Spike in police-related killings in 2019

As po­lice con­front a sus­tained wave of vi­o­lent crime in the coun­try, some 23 peo­ple have been killed in of­fi­cer-in­volved shoot­ings this year, a 64% in­crease over a sim­i­lar pe­ri­od in 2018. The 23 fa­tal­i­ties oc­curred in 14 of­fi­cer-in­volved shoot­ings, ac­cord­ing to the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty. Over a sim­i­lar pe­ri­od in 2018, some 14 peo­ple were killed in 11 shoot­ings in­volv­ing po­lice of­fi­cers. Two in­ci­dents in the last sev­er­al days -in Care­nage and En­ter­prise- have trig­gered a de­bate about whether po­lice are be­ing too heavy-hand­ed in deal­ing with sus­pects. This al­le­ga­tion is of­ten times lev­elled by the same peo­ple who ask po­lice to help stamp out crime and crim­i­nals in their neigh­bour­hoods. Read more here

POLITICS

PM: DPP has AV Drilling details

The Prime Minister on Monday invited Naparima MP Rodney Charles to “come outside,” in the climax to his impassioned defence of the authorities’ handling of the AV Drilling “fake oil” scandal, in the House of Representatives. Accusing the Opposition of trying to confuse the public, Rowley said Petrotrin had done an investigation into the matter and all details had since been lodged with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to see if there had been any wrongdoing. “The matter is in arbitration between AV and Petrotrin, where contractual liabilities are to be determined. If there is any criminal conduct, that is in the hands of the DPP.” Read more here

Opposition senator evicted from Senate

For the sec­ond week in a row, an Op­po­si­tion Par­lia­men­tar­i­an—this time a Sen­a­tor—was put out of the Par­lia­ment cham­ber. Last week it was UNC MP Bar­ry Padarath who was evict­ed from the Par­lia­ment cham­ber by the House Speak­er for in­sist­ing on rais­ing wa­ter short­age in his con­stituen­cy. Yes­ter­day it was Op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor Tahar­qa Obi­ka for an of­fen­sive re­mark. The sit­u­a­tion oc­curred when Obi­ka asked For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Den­nis Moses about Ugan­dan na­tion­als who were ter­mi­nat­ed from T&T’s High Com­mis­sion in Ugan­da and if they were paid ter­mi­nal ben­e­fits in ac­cor­dance with their terms and con­di­tions of em­ploy­ment. Read more here

BUSINESS

Are we prepared for wet season?

Two business groups are questioning if proper provisions have been put in place before the coming wet season in the event there is a repeat of the devastating flooding that occurred last year. Read more here

REGIONAL

Salute To A Teacher - Model Educator Solomon Scott Undaunted By Polio, Kidney Disease

Even though he has polio and, since 2017, kidney disease, 60-year-old teacher Solomon Scott has never harboured the slightest thought of giving up on life or resorting to depend on people for his survival. Those traits have earned him the admiration of many, and today, Teachers’ Day, he will be honoured by the Abilities Foundation, where he has taught the art of furniture making to intellectually challenged students for the past 14 years. “I became a victim of polio from my first year in primary school. Right now, I am suffering from kidney disease. Doctors say high blood pressure caused the kidneys to fail,” Scott told The Gleaner yesterday. “The day before primary school, they used one needle to give the whole school polio vaccination. The following morning, I couldn’t go to school,” he recounted. Since then, he has been getting treatment at the Spanish Town Hospital in St Catherine and the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre in Mona, St Andrew. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Iranian leader announces partial withdrawal from nuclear deal

Iran will partially withdraw from a landmark nuclear deal signed with six other nations in 2015, amid heightened pressure from the United States in recent weeks. President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech Wednesday that Iran would reduce its "commitments" to the deal, but would not fully withdraw. The move comes a year after the US unilaterally withdrew from the deal, over the stringent objections of other signatories. Rouhani said those signatories -- France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China -- had been informed in advance of Tehran's move. He accused "hardliners" in the US of working to undermine the deal, saying it was "in the interests of the region and the world, but not the enemies of Iran, therefore they spared no effort since 2015 to undermine (the deal)." Read more here

Asia Bibi: Christian leaves Pakistan after blasphemy acquittal

Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who spent years on death row after being convicted of blasphemy, has left the country, officials have confirmed. Her conviction was overturned last year by the Supreme Court. She was originally convicted in 2010 after being accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a row with her neighbours. Asia Bibi has always maintained her innocence in a case that has polarised Pakistan. Pakistani government officials did not reveal her destination, or say when she left. But her lawyer Saif ul Malook told the BBC she had already arrived in Canada, where two of her daughters are understood to have been granted asylum. Read more here

8th May 2019

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