NEWS
Junior Gong: Resist from spoiling T&T
Damien “Junior Gong” Marley, the Gongzilla of Reggae Music, on Saturday night, sent a strong message to T&T minutes after gracing the stage at Hennessy Artistry’s Reggae on the Bay 2015 held at the Hasely Crawford Stadium’s Training Grounds in Port-of-Spain. The Grammy-winning Jamaican artiste reminisced of his younger years coming to T&T and pleaded to the thousands gathered to resist from spoiling the good of the country. “Please, please, you all have something good going on here and don’t spoil it,” Marley said. Read more...
Doctors Refuse to Testify
A $2 million lawsuit, filed by a man whose wife died following a C-section delivery at the San Fernando General Hospital almost five years ago, is in danger of collapsing because the woman’s husband is unable to find a specialist doctor who is willing to provide expert medical evidence for the Judge to determine whether three doctors were negligent. Unable to secure the testimony of one, Lorne Ramsoomair filed an application in the High Court requesting Justice Frank Seepersad to have the Court appoint a specialist obstetrician/gynaecologist, to assess the expert medical evidence tendered by the three doctors who are all contending that they were not negligent. Read more...
Biggest Lotto jackpot ever
The bumper sum of 25 million tax-free dollars will be up for grabs on Wednesday night, in what will be the largest Lotto Plus payout ever. The elusive numbers no one thought of playing in the previous draw on Saturday night were 17, 22, 27, 31, 34, with the Powerball number 2. So while a lot of Trinidadians and Tobagonians were asleep or at either a reggae concert or Halloween party on Saturday night, the jackpot rose to unprecedented proportions. For matching five numbers without the powerball on Saturday, two players won $42,757.27 and the five out of 35 jackpot without the Powerball is now estimated at $10,000 for Wednesday’s draw. Read more...
POLITICS
Minister: Agriculture in schools to get boost
Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat says agriculture in schools will be given a boost. The minister made the statement during a walk on Saturday hosted by the Caroni arm of the National 4-H council of T&T. Rambharat said the return of the Prime Minister’s Award for Agriculture would see a return to agricultural exhibitions where prizes would be given to farms, farmers and schools. He said he was somewhat disappointed to see schools removing their gardens to make way for infrastructure as car parks. Read more...
Deyalsingh: Too much bad blood among RHAs
The various Regional Health Authority (RHA) bodies and the relationship among them are to be reviewed, says Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh. Delivering the feature address at the closing ceremony of a three-day 17th annual International Conference of the Caribbean Urological Association (CURA), at the Royal Hotel in San Fernando, Deyalsingh said, “I want to tell you this morning that this administration is currently reviewing the RHA system in Trinidad and Tobago, not only the legislation, but the relationship among RHAs. Trinidad and Tobago is too small, not for five RHAs but we are too small to have five RHAs which do not speak to each other,” The Health Minister said that there is infighting and “bad blood” among the RHAs. Read more...
Kamla Under Pressure
Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh will be contesting the United National Congress (UNC) chairmanship on Dr Roodal Moonilal's team. Moonilal will be battling former prime minister and UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for the party's leadership on December 5. Speaking at a news conference at Radisson hotel in Port of Spain yesterday morning, Gopeesingh announced his candidacy, saying he believes he has the competence to aid in the rebuilding of the UNC and taking it forward. Read more...
BUSINESS
Transport expert says crisis looming
More than one million motor vehicles will overwhelm the nation’s road infrastructure by the time the Keith Rowley administration realises its manifesto promise for implementation of a mass transit plan as part of the country’s reformed transport system. That’s the view of transport expert Rae Furlonge who is warning that based on the rate of new- and foreign-used car sales a crisis looms in the transport sector. Speaking on a recent T&T Coalition of Services Industries (TTCSI) Services radio programme, Furlonge said: “We are not hearing rapid rail. Now, we are hearing mass transit, but I am telling you, I am creating the picture, that it was introduced before its time. I am not knocking anybody. I am simply saying there was never any justification for it then, because we never had an adopted national transportation plan. It was interfered with. Read more...
NFM, TCL outperform
This week, we at Bourse evaluate the most recent results of two closely watched Manufacturing stocks on the local exchange, NFM and TCL. Both stocks have delivered favourable earnings growth for the nine month period, as well as being two of the best performing stocks on the local exchange for the year. We take a closer look at their performance trends and give an outlook on the future viability of both companies. Read more...
REGIONAL
Major decline in STDs among Jamaica’s sex workers
The National Family Planning Board (NFPB) is reporting a significant decline in the prevalence rate of Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) among the country’s sex workers. A recent sex worker survey done by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) showed that the rate has dropped from 12 per cent to 2.9 per cent. Director of Health Promotion and Prevention at the NFPB, Andrea Campbell said the results are encouraging, and indicate that the sex workers are receiving and acting on the safe sex messages from the NFPB. She said the entity, through its training and outreach activities, has been able to engage more sex workers and share prevention and safe sex messages. Read more...
Antigua-Barbuda redefines diplomatic passports policy
In the wake of the arrest of its former UN permanent representative Dr John Ashe on tax evasion charges relating to alleged bribes paid to him, the government of Antigua and Barbuda has announced what purport to be major changes to the policy governing the issue of diplomatic passports. According to the government’s chief of staff Lionel ‘Max’ Hurst, diplomatic passports will now be issued to ambassadors at large, all ministers of government, the leader of the opposition, and president of the senate and the speaker of the house. Former prime ministers, governors general, national heroes, knights, dames and their spouses will also be issued diplomatic passports. Read more...
INTERNATIONAL
Turkey election: Erdogan calls on world to respect result
Russian plane crash in Egypt: What we know so far
The only reasonable explanation for the crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt is "an external influence," an executive from the airline that operated the flight said Monday, stressing that planes don't just break apart in midair. "We exclude technical problems and reject human error," Alexander Smirnov, an official at the airline, told a news conference as he discussed possible causes of the crash. Read more...
2nd November 2015