NEWS
Three Tobago officers arrested
Confirmation yesterday come from Head of the Tobago Division of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), Acting Senior Superintendent Joanne Archie, that “three officers are assisting the TTPS’ Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) in an investigation.” The three officers will reportedly appear in court today, charged with several offences, including kidnapping and misbehaviour in public office following the alleged abduction and beating of a Mason Hall, Tobago man in 2015. During the incident the man, said to have a criminal record, was allegedly warned by the officers not to testify in an ongoing court matter involving a police corporal. Newsday was informed by a police source that all three were detained yesterday and placed on an identification parade, during which they were positively identified. Read more…
Mayor says Laventille has become Hell on earth
Port-of-Spain Mayor Raymond Tim Kee says Laventille has become “hell on earth” following last Thursday’s shooting deaths of two school boys on Picton Road. Tim Kee and other officials from the corporation visited the Sogren Trace home of the parents of 16-year-old Mark Richards, one of the deceased in the attack. The other student killed in the attack was 17-year-old, Deneilson Smith. They were both students of Success/Laventille Secondary School. Read more…
Living in Fear
Things as simple as putting out the garbage on a morning, catching a taxi to go to school or work, or going outside to play football with your neighbours can make you an easy target for gunmen in Laventille as gang warfare in the area “heats up”. This was the sad and frightening tale told by several residents of Picton Road and Sogren Trace, Laventille, while speaking to members of the media yesterday. “People in this area are frightened. Men are coming up through the drain in the back of people’s homes and shooting at them. They are so frightened that men stop playing football on evenings and all. Read more…
POLITICS
Marlene warns: HDC not coming after a phone call
Promising to continue the housing thrust despite current economic challenges, Housing Minister Marlene Mc Donald, on Saturday, warned new homeowners in St Mary’s Village, Moruga, that the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) will not be at their beck and call for the maintenance of their homes. The money spent on, what the minister described as, “avoidable maintenance”, could be better spent on building new homes for the thousands that are now on the HDC waiting list. McDonald was the feature speaker at a “Presentation of Keys ceremony” held at St Mary’s Government Primary School Moruga where 43 families received keys to their new homes at Ridge View, Gomez Trace Housing Community. Read more…
MP: Murders over rank, turf and stupidity
Laventille West Fitzgerald Hinds said yesterday the killings taking place in his constituency was all about “rank, stupidity and borderlines.” In response to questions from the T&T Guardian on Thursday’s killing of two students of Success Laventille Secondary School, Hinds said he, like other citizens, was sickened by the deaths. Deneilson Smith, 17, and Mark Richards, 16, were dragged from a taxi by gunmen and shot them as they were approaching their respective homes in Laventille. He said the killings were “over absolutely nothing. It is not about land, it is nothing. It is just based on stupidity and the access to illegal firearms and the swiftness to run for them.” Read more…
BUSINESS
Barbados, Guyana expand in energy
Even as energy companies in T&T sector are reporting declines in revenue, Guyana and Barbados are putting measures in place to expand their energy sectors. Energy Ministers from the two neighbouring countries were part of a special plenary on Caribbean regional energy integration at the recently concluded T&T Energy Conference at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain. Darcy Boyce, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister of Barbados, referring to the size of T&T’s energy sector, said: “Barbados does not expect to see a large development of the oil and gas industry. I don’t think it is a matter of absorbing (T&T’s workers who were laid off. Our energy sector is small and quite diversified.” Read more…
The conservative investor
This week, we at Bourse present our recommendation on the Conservative Investor portfolio allocation and the challenges that may be faced by this investor type. The main investment objective of the Conservative Investor is preservation of capital and generation of income, with limited focus on capital appreciation. Profile of the Conservative Investor Risk tolerance usually dominates the decision-making process of the conservative investor, who essentially chooses lower-risk investments, sacrificing potentially higher returns for minimizing risk to invested capital. Read more…
REGIONAL
US Virgin Islands record first case of Zika virus
The Virgin Islands Department of Health has confirmed the territory’s first case Zika virus. It said the virus was found in a 42-year-old woman in St. Croix with no history of previous travel during the incubation period of the virus. Twenty countries in the Americas and about 10 in Africa, Asia and the Pacific have reported cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus infection, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO). The virus is being blamed for birth defects – including microcephaly, a rare condition in which the brains of infants are unusually small – in babies born to women who contracted the virus while pregnant. Read more…
Haiti elections postponed indefinitely
Haiti was scheduled to hold the second round presidential and second round partial legislative elections on Sunday but on Friday afternoon the country’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced their indefinite postponement, citing security concerns. The announcement came after a week of intensifying protests, attacks on electoral offices and a growing chorus of voices, both in Haiti and internationally, insisting that the vote be delayed. Second-place presidential candidate Jude Célestin had vowed to boycott the elections, due to persistent concerns about fraud and vote-buying influence on the October 25 first round of the presidential election. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
Explorer Henry Worsley dies in Antarctic crossing
Five years after the Egyptian revolution, police brutality persists
Thousands gathered in Tahrir Square in January 2011 to protest police brutality. The chants quickly turned against the regime as demonstrators clashed with security forces across Egypt. Eighteen days later, Hosni Mubarak was forced out of office after 30 years in power. The Arab Spring was in full force. But five turbulent years later, complaints about police brutality and the use of deadly force persist. "We are in a worse off position than we were in Mubarak years," human rights lawyer Ragia Omran told CNN. Read more…
25th January 2016