NEWS
Argument over Bay Rum ends in death
An argument between two friends about the over consumption of Bay Rum ended in death early Wednesday at an agricultural estate in Manzanilla. According to reports, the victim Jharkoo Sylvester, 59, of New Settlement Plum Mitan, Manzanilla was last seen alive at the estate with another villager late Tuesday night. On Wednesday at about 6.30 am the owner of the estate found Sylvester’s body in a shack with blood oozing from his head. The estate owner alerted police and officers from the Manzanilla police station along with a District Medical Officer went to the scene. The body was ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre and it was initially thought that Sylvester had fallen and struck his head. Read more…
Right thinking T&T knows truth
“Right thinking people know the truth. The rest can’t be convinced.” That’s how Brian Manning, son of the late prime minister Patrick Manning, responded in a Facebook message to the T&T Guardian yesterday about Sat Maharaj’s claims his father was a “racist.” But steering clear of the controversial issue, Manning (Brian) stated he preferred not to say anything further on the matter. “I have no comment to make,” he wrote. Read more…
Cops linking body in forest to missing guard
Police suspect the decomposing body of a man found by hunters in the Tabaquite forest yesterday may be that of missing prison officer Rishi Sankar. The body had been wrapped in a plastic material and was in an advanced state of decomposition, police said. Sankar’s family yesterday submitted tissue samples for DNA testing to assist in identification of the corpse. The body was found around 9.30 a.m. by hunters, who informed the Brasso Police Post. Officers were shown the corpse, dumped in bushes some 12 metres (40 feet) from the road. Also responding were ASPs Pardassie and Samaroo, as well as officers of the Homicide Division Region III and Princes Town CID. The corpse was examined by a district medical officer and the remains removed to the Forensic Science Centre, St James. Sankar, 35, of Stone Road, Piparo, was last seen June 22. Read more…
POLITICS
Sections unconstitutional
Portions of the Commissioner. of Police and Deputy Commissioner. of Police (Selection. Process) Order of 2015, which. propose a new process by which. the country’s top cop is to be chosen,. have been declared unconstitutional. by a High Court judge. who has struck out the ultra vires. parts. Admitting he could not rewrite. the Order, Justice Peter Rajkumar. — asked by a retired Police Inspector. to interpret the 2015 Order in. the public’s interest — said those. portions which he deemed ultra. vires the Constitution, did not recognise. the independence and autonomy. of the Police Service Commission. (PSC). In his 51-page ruling, while he. held PSC’s independence or autonomy. were not removed, Rajkumar. noted that the 2015 Order — which. sets out the appointment process —. was ‘an unjustifiable and unlawful. fetter upon and interference with. the independence, jurisdiction and. functions of the PSC.’ Read more…
Rowley rejects Sat’s ‘racist’ Manning claim Close to sedition
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday rejected claims by the secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Satnarayan Maharaj, that former prime minister Patrick Manning was racist, because he practiced policies that harmed Indo-Trinidadians. Rowley, in a forceful and sometimes angry response, accusing Maharaj of uttering comments that were “close to sedition.” Maharaj first made the claims on Radio Jaagriti on Tuesday, and the comments were followed up in yesterday’s T&T Guardian. Yesterday they drew scathing criticism from several sectors of the society. Read more…
Court rules for Kamla
A High Court judge has declared certain portions of the new process proposed by the current Government for the selection of this country’s top-ranking police officers are unconstitutional. And he ruled they should be struck from the Commissioner of Police and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Selection Process) Order of 2015. Read more…
BUSINESS
Group: PM must act on Clico
Claimant group, Clico Stakeholders Alliance (CSA), is urging Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to get directly involved in the Clico affair, as they questioned recent statements by Finance Minister, Colm Imbert. In a statement titled, ‘Not so fast Mr Imbert’, the group accused the Minister of “passing the buck”, by his recent remarks that queries about a missing $6 billion must be directed to the Central Bank of TT (CBTT) which managed Clico since 2009. The CSA said this sum represents a transfer of wealth from policyholders and shareholders to State agencies that hold Clico Investment Bank (CIB) deposits. “Imbert is right to question the Central Bank, but it did not confiscate the $6 billion,” said the CSA, which also criticised the bank for this loss under the nose of an actuary. “It then added its own $4 billion deficit by writing down asset values and writing up liability values at Jan 30, 2009, which it then used in its propaganda campaign as a ‘ballooning $10 Billion deficit’.” The CSA accused the bank of losing its way as it amended the Insurance Act to minimize policyholder and shareholder rights, and surrendered to the Government its stewardship powers to preserve rights of policyholders, creditors and shareholders. Read more…
AmCham joins call for FATCA compliance
American Chamber of Commerce of T&T (AmCham) yesterday called on government to bring legislation to the Parliament governing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) so T&T can meet the September 30 deadline for implementation. FATCA became law in the US in March 2010 and since then the American Chamber of Commerce of T&T (AmCham) said it had been very vocal on the issue. The law was put into place to ensure that US citizens, green-card holders as well as non-resident citizens file their taxes. In a statement, the group called for the “timely enactment” of legislation so that local financial institutions can be guided by it. Adding that given the September 30 deadline for the legislation to be implemented, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert should address the issue. “The US is still a major trading partner of T&T and non-compliance by the stipulated deadline could pose a major challenge for operations within financial institutions, gravely impacting our ability to do business.” Read more…
Detour-tech out, Starbucks in
Electronics retailer Detour-tech is moving its prime location at MovieTowne in Port of Spain to make way for the country’s first Starbucks coffeehouse. But Detour-tech—which took over the retail business of RadioShack after the foreign franchise filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States in 2015—says it is “being forced” to move from its location on the MovieTowne cineplex and shopping centre. Detour-tech yesterday morning placed a banner on its window storefront, advertising what it described as a “wrongful eviction sale” with “up to 75 per cent off everything” at its MovieTowne outlet. Read more…
REGIONAL
Crime Country - No Easy Fix To Nation’s Ills
Today, we begin a journey in Solutions Journalism, where we put conscious minds together to explore issues and provide ideas they believe will solve some of the country’s most intractable challenges. Join us on this journey, which begins at The Fourth Floor, and be a part of the solution. A lottery scammer can become a millionaire long before he reaches voting age. Boys as young as 14 have reportedly hauled in millions via the illegal enterprise, which has held Montego Bay and its environs in a vise-like grip for more than a decade. Lottery scamming and its associated violence have torn several communities apart and continue to threaten security and stability in the Second City. An estimated US$300 million is scammed each year from unsuspecting older citizens mainly in North America. Read more…
Venezuela state oil company denies cutting exports to Cuba
Officials with Venezuela's state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), have rejected allegations that the firm has reduced crude oil exports to Cuba. "There has not been any issue or reduction with the supply of Venezuelan oil to Cuba. There is a technical and engineering difficulty at the Cienfuegos refinery," said Luis Morillo, PDVSA's general manager in Cuba, at a press conference on Tuesday." This is a technical problem all refineries are facing. We will close certain areas of the plant for 120 days over the course of the year to fix these issues and update certain processes," he added. Cuba, long reliant on Venezuela as its top energy supplier under the Petrocaribe alliance of nations that receive preferential terms for oil, has received some 53,500 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from PDVSA this year, a 40 percent decline from the first half of 2015, according to the company's internal trade data, Reuters reported last week. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
US police shootings: Obama urges unity amid racial tension
Live updates: Truck driver attacks crowd in Nice, killing dozens
A truck drove into a crowd at Bastille Day celebrations late Thursday in Nice, southern France, killing dozens of people.
- AFP reporting at least 84 people have died
- French President Francois Hollande: We cannot deny that it was a terror attack
- Truck driver shot into crowds before plowing into people for around 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) until he was shot to death by authorities. Read more…
15th July 2016