NEWS
Decapitated man positively identified
The body of the decapitated man found in Port-of-Spain on Wednesday has been identified as 35-year-old Nathan Maraj of #2 Las Lomas. Yesterday, relatives who requested not to be named, denied earlier reports that Maraj was a known drug dealer, but said he was an employee of Maritime Insurance, who had a mental disorder. “I never knew him to be no drug lord,” said a relative. “If he was, he would have had some mansion in Chaguaramas or something. From what I know, he had a mental problem. He would trip off once every few years, and just do all kinds of madness, like curse and carry on.” An autopsy done at the Forensic Science Center St James revealed Maraj died from multiple stab and slash wounds to the neck. The autopsy also revealed Maraj’s head was removed from his body post-mortem. Read more...
Right decisions must be made in HIV/Aids awareness
Former director of the disbanded National Aids Coordinating Committee (NACC) Dr Amery Browne said HIV/Aids trends are more complicated than what were being portrayed. He was responding to statements made by Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh who had said that until 2012 there was a downward trend in the number of HIV/Aids cases in this country but when the programme was removed from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and placed under the Health Ministry there seemed to be an increase in the number of cases. Read more...
Scarborough pupil struck on zebra crossing by SRP
Twelve - year - old Jaylon Archer, a pupil of Scarborough Secondary School, escaped death yesterday morning when he was struck by a car just outside his school. According to police reports, shortly before 8.30 a.m., Archer was walking along the zebra crossing in the vicinity of Shaw Park, near his school, when he was hit by a car driven by a Special Reserve Police (SRP) officer in an unmarked vehicle. The boy was thrown several metres, according to an eyewitness account from another pupil. “I turned back, I hear bang, I see Jaylon fly up in the air...he hit his head and he fall on the ground hard, and then I said, come, let us help him and I run back to tell them. Jaylon was walking on the crosswalk at the moment of the incident,” said the pupil. Archer suffered bruises below his chin, a broken tooth, injuries to both arms and his ankles. His mother, Jennesa George, a Scarborough port security official, said her heart almost stopped when she got the news. Read more...
POLITICS
Cuffie: We fund cops against crime
Communisations Minister Maxie Cuffie yesterday said Government is funding the police to be properly resourced to fight crime, when asked if Cabinet was concerned about the discovery of a decapitated victim in East Portof- Spain on Wednesday. “Well, I think you should, (recognise) our concern by the fact that we allocated the single largest portion of the Budget to ‘National Security’ and national security matters. Any murder is of concern to the Government and we are actively working on ensuring Trinidad and Tobago is safer and secure,” declared Cuffie. “Up to today, we did discuss national security matters in relation to safety and our borders and that will be ongoing. In terms of the day to day operations, those are matters best handled by the police, but at a policy level we are doing everything possible to ensure that the national security officials have the resources they need, to be able to implement the policies that we expect.” In other crime news, Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General, Stuart Young said the Government will have cyber-crime legislation on its upcoming legislative agenda, in the week where a woman was awarded $150,000 by the courts for breach of confidence for the leaking of intimate photos by her former lover, cricket star Lendl Simmons, even as another woman complained of similar breaches by a technician at a computer-repair shop. Read more...
Hinds to meet with Kublalsingh
Works Minister Fitzgerald Hinds has agreed to meet with Dr Wayne Kublalsingh and the Highway Reroute Movement (HRM) to hear concerns about the controversial Debe to Mon Desir leg of the Point Fortin Highway. Kublalsingh told members of the media at a news conference in Debe on Wednesday, that Hinds called him earlier this week and has agreed to two meetings with him. Kublalsingh’s determination and a fast to have that leg re routed, failed to get a responsive ear from the Kamla Persad Bissessar People’s Partnership administration. Following the September 7 elections, he wrote to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley requesting a meeting in his bid to have that leg redesigned so as to elminate problems of flooding it has already wrath on residents along that path of the highway. The letter was also copied to Hinds and Minister of Planning, Camille Robinson-Regis. Read more...
Roodal vs Kamla
Dr Roodal Moonilal — the man who former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar anointed as her successor — is expected to announce today that he will be battling her for the leadership of the United National Congress (UNC). Moonilal who is Opposition Chief Whip and Oropouche East MP will hold a news conference for this purpose at 10 a.m. at his constituency office in Debe Junction, Debe. Read more...
BUSINESS
Compensating in a tough economy
The Human Resource Management Association (HRMATT) will host a breakfast seminar titled “Compensating in a Tough Economy: How can companies weather an Economic Downturn”, on November 6, at the Courtyard Marriott. The seminar starts at 8.30 am and ends at 11 am. Designed to assist local human resource professionals, this seminar will focus on the challenges employers and organisations face during an economic downturn. Many companies face high employee expectations. Read more...
Farrell appointed to chair Economic Advisory Board
An Economic Advisory Board chaired by economist and former Central Bank deputy governor Dr Terrence Farrell has been appointed by Cabinet to report to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley. Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie made the announcement yesterday at the post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair. Read more...
REGIONAL
CARICOM election mission to Haiti notes issues that could lead to 'undesirable sequels'
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Election Observation Mission (CEOM) to Haiti has issued its Immediate post-election statement in which it highlighted areas that could lead to “undesirable sequels” if not corrected. Those areas included anomalies pertaining to voting norms, varying methodologies in poll practices and inadequate physical space at polling stations. Read more...
Opposition Senators Unlikely To Return To Senate Despite Lifting Of Malahoo Forte's Suspension
Opposition senators seem set to again boycott the sitting of the Upper House Friday despite today's lifting of the suspension of their colleague Marlene Malahoo Forte. All eight Opposition senators stayed away from the Upper House today prompting the Government to suspend the debate on the three bills to remove the UK-based Privy Council as Jamaica's final appeal court and replace it with the Caribbean Court of Justice. "Lifting the suspension takes us a bit further, but it doesn't take us where we need to be," Opposition Senator Kamina Johnson Smith said on RJR's Beyond the Headlinesthis afternoon. Read more...
INTERNTATIONAL
U.S. man fighting ISIS: It's not 'Call of Duty'
A former U.S. soldier battling ISIS alongside Kurdish fighters in Syria has warned others tempted to join him that life on the front line is no computer game. "You meet a lot of people who think this is going to be the gaming experience -- [like] Call of Duty," he told CNN at his remote camp near the Tigris River in northern Syria. Read more...
Syria conflict: Powers backing rivals meet in Vienna
30th October 2015