NEWS
Burglar Smoked Out
There was high drama yesterday morning as police officers used canisters of teargas to literally smoke out a burglary suspect who hid in the aircondition vents of the 51 Degrees nightclub and restaurant off Cipriani Boulevard following a burglary. However, three other suspects managed to escape the police dragnet which included a National Security helicopter which hovered overhead. A Chaguanas man, aged 38, was taken into custody after the burglary at Town Restaurant and Bar and 51 Degrees nighclub. When Newsday arrived, the area was still cordoned off as officers continued a door-to-door search for the suspects who are believed to have made off with a quantity of liquor and cash. Read more...
New plan coming to help lawless minors
New legislation is being prepared to assist minors charged with crimes in the country. Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Stuart Young said during Wednesday’s public consultations on local government reform at Guaico Government Secondary School, Sangre Grande. He was responding to a question on the issue of restorative justice within the Ministry of Local Government. Read more...
Tight security at funeral for slain pupil
The funeral of 16-year-old Mark Richards, one of the schoolboys brutally murdered in Laventille last week, brought dozens of people from Laventille into Port of Spain yesterday to pay their final respects to the slain teenager. It also resulted in a heavy police presence at the Nella's Funeral Home along Duke Street, Port of Spain, as officers of the Inter Agency Task Force and the Port of Spain Division were not risking the possibility of reprisal attacks at the funeral service. Read more...
POLITICS
Govt names new heads of 6 State Boards
NEW directors for six more State Boards were yesterday named by Minister of Communications Maxie Cuffie, at yesterday’s post-Cabinet news briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), St Clair. These are as follows: The Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) — Gilbert Peterson (chairman), Dr Kim Mallalieu, Kalana Prince-Wilson, Oliver Trevor Elcock, Terrence Henry, Eric Butler, Nikolaiski Ali, Vinood Ramroop and Deoraj Seegobin. The Advisory Town Planning Panel - Victoria Mendez-Charles (chairman), Natalie Atkinson, Jameel Reid and Gitanjalie Gopeesingh.
The Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies — Dr Roosevelt Williams (chairman), Davanand Sinanan, Jennifer Daniel, Trevor Johnson, Justin De Freitas, Anderson Thorington, Andrea McKenna- James and Bernard Cropper. Read more...
HA HA HA
Foreign Affairs Minister Dennis Moses laughed heartily yesterday when asked about his surprise appointment as Minister in the Ministry of National Security. His "ha! ha! ha!" appeared to curtail the need for any elaboration on his part on the matter of his appointment. Asked by the Express in a telephone interview what specific areas of National Security he envisaged he would be involved in, given his substantive portfolio of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, Moses gave a hearty chuckle. "Thanks for the insight," he said. Read more...
BUSINESS
Cable & Wireless and WhatsApp now partners
Cable & Wireless (C&W) and WhatsApp have entered into a strategic marketing partnership which it says will allow its customers access to the full range of WhatsApp features across the company’s networks. Cable & Wireless’s brands – Flow, BTC, and LIME – are currently the only officially authorized providers of WhatsApp data bundles in the Caribbean region. In a release C&W said as a result of the partnership it will introduce a suite of innovative packages with additional benefits for customers, which will be unveiled across all its markets in the coming months. Read more...
T&T’s cocoa sector left behind
The local cocoa industry has been through too many cycles of neglect to generate the billions of dollars in revenue and crucial foreign exchange T&T needs at this time, Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat has admitted. The minister, who was interviewed by the T&T Guardian at the launch of the Cocoa Pod, an exclusive chocolate shop located on Gordon Street, Port-of-Spain, said while research by the University of the West Indies indicates that conditions are prime in T&T to rejuvenate the sector it was left behind because oil and gas drove the economy. Read more...
Baptiste takes over at Republic next month
Career banker Nigel Baptiste will take over as president and chief executive officer at Republic Financial Holdings—the parent company of Republic Bank—next month. He will also take over as managing director of Republic Bank. He replaces David Dulal-Whiteway who is retiring after more than 25 years with the bank. Read more...
REGIONAL
Antigua-Barbuda ambassador to lead OAS mission to Haiti
Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the Organisation of American States (OAS), Sir Ronald Sanders, will lead a mission to Haiti at the request of the Haitian ambassador to the OAS, Bocchit Edmond, and the organisation’s secretary-general, Luis Almagro. The mission to assess the situation is in response to a request by Haitian President Michel Martelly, which was agreed by the Permanent Council of the OAS on January 27 after lengthy discussion of the looming constitutional crisis in Haiti and its possible undesirable consequences. The request was made against the backdrop of the postponement of the second round of presidential elections that were scheduled for December 27 and then January 24, and the looming constitutional void that will exist after February 7, 2016, when the current president of Haiti’s term will expire without a duly elected successor. Read more...
INTERNATIONAL
The one-way ticket to ISIS central
It's a pretty normal bus -- windows slightly cracked, dust, the occasional button missing on the dashboard. But when its passengers say they take it knowing they could be on a one-way ticket to death, they aren't exaggerating. From the dark and dank underpass that is Charles Helou bus station in central Beirut, leaves the bus to Raqqa. It has done so for years, but now that Raqqa is the capital of ISIS' self-declared caliphate, the bus crosses the most dangerous border in the world. And people do pay to get on it. Read more...
US election 2016: Republican rivals mock Trump over no-show
29th January 2016