NEWS
Beaten so severely, his skull was shattered
An autopsy which was deferred for two days, finally took place yesterday on the body of Arima Borough Corporation employee Joseph Daniel Logan which revealed that he was beaten so severely with a piece of wood that his skull was shattered in several places. Logan was struck at least six times to the back of the head with a force so excessive that it caused his skull to split in two halves resulting in death. The autopsy was carried out yesterday by Dr Valery Alexandrov and the findings were later presented to Logan’s mother Susan Paul. Newsday understands that Dr Alexandrov’s examination also revealed a hole at the back of Logan’s head which was created by a screw that was affixed to the wood used to inflict the wounds. The length of wood was taken to the Forensic Science Centre by CSI officers yesterday which Dr Alexandrov used to demonstrate to Paul how her son was beaten.
The results also indicated that the victim appeared to be running away when he was struck the killer blows. Apart from the shattered skull the only other signs of trauma to Logan’s body were minor cuts to the face which he sustained when he fell face forward to the ground under the blows. Yesterday, Cyndy Megia, demanded justice for her brother’s murder. “Dr Alexandrov treated us very well today and he explained everything, he showed us photos of everything and said that we will get a copy of report in three weeks time, we got all the documents required to pursue the funeral. Excessive force was used, he was hit multiple times, we want justice and if he was hit once, why was so much force used? That perpetrator has to go down for life,” Megia said. Read more…
Ex-accused wants cops to reopen case
One of the men who was acquitted of the murder of Xtra Foods CEO Vindra Naipaul-Coolman has called on police to reopen their investigation into the murder. Jamille Garcia made the call yesterday after he belatedly walked out of the Port-of-Spain prison two days after being acquitted. “They (police) need to do over their investigation because they had innocent men sitting in there for ten years while the real killers walking free. That not fair,” Garcia said. Garcia and Gloster were released yesterday after their lawyers filed a habeas corpus writ before the court. The T&T Guardian understands that the five others who were acquitted alongside them — Marlon Trimmingham, Gloster’s brother Shervon Peters, Antonio Charles, Garcia’s brother Keida and Ronald Armstrong — were denied their release due to a similar issue to Gloster and Garcia. Read more…
‘I glad for freedom...’
TWO days after being found not guilty in the murder trial of Chaguanas businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-Coolman, two other former accused walked out of the Port of Spain prison after a writ of habeas corpus was filed on their behalf yesterday morning. Read more…
POLITICS
Govt to wind up Tobago company
Cabinet yesterday decided to wind up the Human Capital Development Facilitation Company (HCDFC) which was seemingly used by the former People’s Partnership (PP) government, through the now defunct Tobago Development Ministry, to undermine the Tobago House of Assembly (THA). In making this announcement at the post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) in St Clair, Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs Stuart Young said the wind up will be done by Corporation Sole (Finance Minister Colm Imbert), public officers attached to the HCDFC will be re-deployed to the wider Public Service, all contract employees will be terminated “within the meaning of the law” and the company’s assets will be disposed of accordingly. Young said his ministry will now determine, “whether there have been any breaches of fiduciary duty, any criminal actions that require criminal sanction and any other further civil actions that may be taken against those who may have breached the law.” Declaring that HCDFC “appears to be no more than an expensive financial conduit,surreptitiously intended to spend money on programmes intent on supporting the fledgling political capital” of former Tobago Development Minister Dr Delmon Baker, Young said Cabinet received a report from a two member team appointed to review the former ministry and the company. He said an audit of 602 asset items of the ministry and company made some distubing findings. Read more…
Audit on ex-Tobago ministry finds wastage: Baker had valet to fix image
Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young says a State enterprise and facilities for a valet employed to supervise the “sartorial image” of the former Minister of Tobago Development, Dr Delmond Baker, are among the assets of the former ministry to be disposed. Speaking during yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair, Young said the discovery was made during an investigation into the former ministry by Dr John Prince and Ethel Hector-Berkely. The report was dated February 2016. Young, who is also Minister in the Office of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, said the investigators found that the Tobago Development Ministry and a State enterprise, called the Human Capital Development Facilitation Company Limited, was set up to secure support for the United National Congress on the island, especially after it failed to win any seat in the 2013 Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections. He said the ministry and the company were set up to suppress the People’s National Movement-controlled THA. Read more…
Young: Ministry had valet to spruce up Baker
A valet to spruce up Dr Delmon Baker, former People’s Partnership minister of Tobago development. This was one of the “disturbing” findings uncovered in an audit of the ministry of Tobago development and the Human Capital Development Facilitation Company Ltd (HCDFCL). Read more…
BUSINESS
Minister: Cyber security attracts investors
Minister of Public Administration Maxie Cuffie has vowed that TT will become the financial hub of the region, but said that firstly, cyber-security must ensure the integrity of financial transactions and so protect investors, as he addressed an international workshop at the Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s. Such measures will boost investor confidence, he explained. Participants included ECLAC, the International Telecommunications Union and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Cuffie said the forum was apt because of a recent Mastercard report, “Evaluating the Social Cost of Cash”, which said the TT economy could grow by 3.5 per cent if locals increase their use of electronic payments by 30 percent in a fouryear period. He said the report said that a greater use of electronic payments is a key driver of economic development and the reduction of indirect costs such as the informal economy. Cuffie revived the idea of TT as the Caribbean’s financial hub through the development of the International Financial Centre (IFC), while lamenting little progress over the decade since it was first mooted. Read more…
Cuffie: Not enough progress with IFC
Minister of Public Administration and Communication Maxie Cuffie says Government is firmly committed to the continued development of the International Financial Centre (IFC) to ensure that T&T becomes the Caribbean’s major financial hub. In the feature address at the opening of a three-day conference on Exploring Innovation in Transactions and Financing in the Caribbean at the Trinidad Hilton and Conference Centre, Cuffie said insufficient progress has been made in developing the IFC to achieve its mandate. “This (the IFC) was designed with Trinidad and Tobago ready to assume the lead as the financial capital of the region and in so doing, expand the diversification process,” he said. “Nearly a decade and an intervening change in administration later, it pains me to say that we have not come as far as we dreamt when we started.” Read more…
Gas sells at lowest price since 2012
Trinidad and Tobago's liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been selling in the United State for its lowest US average price since 2012 and 62 per cent below Canada's price. Read more…
REGIONAL
$100m ZIKV Bite - Government Not Sure How Widespread Zika Is, Allocates More Money For Response
Although millions of dollars more is to be spent on the anti-Zika campaign, there is still no clear picture as to how many Jamaicans are being affected by the mosquito-borne disease, which has been confirmed in two pregnant women. Health minister Dr Christopher Tufton yesterday disclosed that Jamaica had confirmed 16 cases, all of which come from three parishes - Kingston, St Andrew, and St Thomas. But the number could arguably be more as he reported that as at May 29, the ministry had received 1,969 notifications for the virus. Of that figure, he said 1,387 "fit the case definition for Zika and were classified as suspected Zika fever". "The number we have reported, which to date is 16, is subject to lab test and confirmation, but I do take the point, and I saw in a media house today [yesterday] that those international [reporting] standards don't necessarily reflect the reality on the ground," Tufton said, referring to a Gleaner report in which general practitioners called for the reporting of suspected cases, which, they say, may give a more accurate picture of the virus spread. Read more…
Battle of pollsters continues in St Lucia
A day after regional pollsters Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES) roundly rejected the ruling St Lucia Labour Party’s (SLP) critical response to its recent survey of voters, the SLP has released the results of an opinion poll conducted by another regional pollster Don Anderson of Market Research Services Limited in Jamaica. According to the SLP, the Anderson poll across all 17 constituencies has Labour winning a minimum of 11 seats out of 19. This latest poll had a 3.2% margin of error at the 95% confidence level. The SLP pointed out that Anderson has accurately predicted the outcome of the last four national elections in Jamaica, as well as recent national elections in Grenada, Nevis, St Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda. The results of the poll indicated that the SLP is comfortably ahead in ten of the 11 seats in which it is leading. The UWP is comfortably ahead in three of the four seats in which it is leading, and there are two seats that are too close to call. The poll indicated that “the best case scenario for the SLP is 13-4, and the worst case scenario is 11-6”. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
Paris floods: Seine set to peak as more rain forecast
Olympics: Rio 2016's 'perfect storm'
The Olympic Games arrive in Brazil at a time when the country is ravaged by crises. With two months to go until the cauldron is lit in Rio de Janeiro, the host of South America's first Games is grappling with a public health emergency, a governmental meltdown and economic woes. While pressure and scrutiny in the build up to a major sports event is nothing new, Brazil faces a unique cocktail of difficulties. But despite the spread of the Zika virus throughout the region, President Dilma Rousseff standing down amid corruption allegations and Brazil's worst recession in over two decades, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) insist the show will go on. And as Brazil fights fires within its own borders, the international sporting community is battling its own controversies. Read more…
3rd June 2016