DAILY BRIEF
MONDAY 8TH JUNE, 2015
NEWS
Assault case pending for 10 yrs
A decade after he was charged with kicking a man in the head, the trial against Allan Jones is yet to begin. The matter was called last Wednesday before Magistrate Natalie Diop, who noted that since 2009 the matter had been ready for trial. The commencement of the trial had also been set for Wednesday. Attorney Subhas Panday obtained a fiat to prosecute Jones, a security guard. Jones, of Penal, is before the court charged that on July 10, 2005, he assaulted Rajesh Maharaj, occasioning him actual bodily harm. It is alleged that Jones was working at a bar when he allegedly had an altercation with Maharaj. Jones is claiming self-defence in the case. He is being represented by attorney Jeevan Andrew Rampersad. Speaking after the matter, Jones said he had attended court more than 40 times during the past ten years. Read more...
Tim Kee stands by claims Jack paid for UNC banquet
Port-of-Spain Mayor and president of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), Raymond Tim Kee, yesterday said he was standing by statements he made last week, confirming that embattled former national security minister Jack Warner used TTFA funds to pay for a dinner banquet hosted by the United National Congress (UNC) prior to the 2010 general election. Although the dinner was held at a popular hotel and conference centre in Port-of-Spain and attracted a plethora of current and past politicians, businessmen and other private entrepreneurs, the bill was allegedly forwarded to the TTFA for payment. Questioned about the matter outside the Port-of-Spain City Corporation early yesterday—minutes after presenting medals and trophies to the winners of a 5K walk-a-thon by members of the community to mark City Month celebrations, Tim Kee repeated, “I said I saw a bill and I explained what was on that bill.” Read more...
Grief as El Pecos blast victim dies
Expressions of grief and shock are being expressed by friends of John Soo Ping Chow over his passing on Friday morning — four months after he sustained injuries in a blast which destroyed the popular El Pecos Restaurant outlet at the Royal Palm Hotel in Maraval. He was being treated at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida.On Facebook, Soo Ping Chow, a consultant, was described as a “brother from another mother” and the “life of the party.” One friend, Marlon Bernard posted a photo of himself and Soo Ping Chow. A caption read “This is a true brother here, was blessed to be part of your life wonderful and joyous journey. RIP friend.” Sharlene Gittens-Francis added, “He was a ray of sunshine. The life of the party. A real trooper! Words cannot express the shock at the news of your passing. . Read more...
POLITICS
Howai: Govt saved $5 billion
Finance Minister Larry Howai at 1 am on Saturday in the Lower House revealed that the Government had saved $5.2 billion in public expenditure this fiscal year, minutes before the House unanimously passed the Finance (Variation of Appropriation) Bill 2015. This sum included $750 million in savings due to delays in PSIP projects such as the Red House restoration, Beetham Waste Water Plant, construction of several new police stations, and the Eteck Park. Howai said the country’s fiscal deficit will now be $3.9 billion instead of an initially projected $4.3 B. He added that this year’s deficit could even come in as low as $2.5 billion, according to Central Bank calculations. On the industrial front, he revealed that production from the Juniper gas field will power the proposed Mitsubishi plant by 2017 or 2018. . Read more...
Laptops helped 380,000 citizens
The Government’s gift of 95,000 free laptops to form one pupils in secondary schools has exposed 380,000 citizens to ICT, said Education Minister, Dr Tim Gopeesingh, responding to Port-of-Spain North/ St Ann’s West MP Patricia Mc Intosh in the Lower House on Friday. Gopeesingh calculated that for each of the 95,000 recipients, there were in all four family members benefitting from exposure to that pupil’s laptop, in all giving a total population of beneficiaries amounting to 380,000 persons. He alleged that Mc Intosh had initially opposed the laptop scheme yet in her speech last Friday had asked why laptops had not been given to CAPE pupils (whom she had said were the ones really needing it to do research). . Read more...
BUSINESS
Canada Trade delegation arrives in TT
Business and institutional representatives from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, have arrived in this country in an attempt to forge relationships with local clients. The trade mission, organised by the Newfoundland and Labrador Environmental Industry Association (NEIA) with the support of the High Commission of Canada comprises seven companies with expertise in the areas of sustainable technologies, professional services, and safety training. Commenting on the visit, High Commissioner of Canada to Trinidad and Tobago, Gérard Latulippe said, “We are pleased to welcome the companies of Newfoundland and Labrador as they seek to expand into various Caribbean markets. This trade mission is further testimony to Canada’s ongoing commitment to the region. Newfoundland offers the region products, services, technologies and experience relevant to island environments and we look forward to the establishment of many new and successful partnerships during this mission.” One-on-one meetings with the mission participants are being organised with interested Trinidad and Tobago public and private sector companies.
The delegation will be in Port-of-Spain until Friday.
TTBS signs development MOU with CSA Group
CSA Group, a leading global provider of standards development, testing and certification services, T&T Bureau of Standards (TTBS), the standards development, conformity assessment, laboratory accreditation and metrology organisation for T&T and Premier Quality Services Ltd (PQSL), a fully owned subsidiary of TTBS that provides business solutions in quality, professional and skill development via training, consultancy and strategic partnership programmes, announced a new alliance and have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU). “Our new alliance with TTBS and PQSL is part of our commitment to develop standards nationally and globally,” said Gianluca Arcari, executive director, Standards and vice president, CSA Group. Read more...
Business groups call for halt to IRA debate
The country’s main business groups are calling for deficiencies in the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill to be addressed before the legislation proceeds any further in Parliament. They are calling for the bill to be delayed to allow for consultation and input from key stakeholders.This was the consensus from an information sharing session hosted by the T&T Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) in collaboration with the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Energy Chamber of T&T and the American Chamber of T&T (AmchamTT) last Wednesday at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business.The session featured presentations by Dr Shafeek Sultan Khan, international legal/management consultant; Aisha Kujifi, an attorney with the Employers’ Consultative Association; and Edghill Messiah, EVP, Human Resource, Electrical Industries Group. Read more...
Businessman on T&T labour shortage: They don’t want Jamaicans
A Jamaican businessman has criticised Caricom for operating like “a one-way street, where the majority of benefits redound to T&T, having secured protection on their industries, borders and petroleum.” President of the Private Sector Organisation Jamaica (PSOJ) William Mahfood, speaking at the Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange forum, said T&T, which is only able to fill 70 per cent of employment in the restaurant sector, could employ Jamaicans and other nationals to reduce the region’s unemployment rate and allow more transfer of funds back and forth between countries. “Jamaicans should be able to get on a plane and go to Trinidad, Guyana or Belize, and apply for jobs as a mason, restaurant worker or a hotel worker without having to go through a process where he is being treated as if he is a second-class citizen,” he said. ” Read more...
REGIONAL
New Venezuelan decree claims ownership over Guyana's continental shelf
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on May 27 issued a decree creating the “Atlantic coast of Venezuela”, which now includes sovereignty over Guyana’s territorial waters in the Atlantic Ocean off the Essequibo region. A map, issued to coincide with this decree, indicates that Venezuela is now claiming all the territorial waters within the 200 miles range and blocking Guyana’s access to its resources in this area of the Atlantic Ocean. This new extension of Venezuela’s claim to Guyanese territorial waters was made official in the presidential decree, No. 1787, and published in the Ordinary Official Gazette No. 40,669, dated May 27, 2015. It is the second decree asserting a claim to Guyana’s territorial waters; the first, issued by President Raul Leoni 47 years ago in July 1968, purportedly claimed “sovereignty” over a 12-mile strip of Guyana’s continental shelf along the Essequibo coast. Read more...
INTERNATIONAL
Malaysia quake: 16 dead, 2 still missing on Mount Kinabalu
Two days after a deadly earthquake in Malaysia launched perilous rock slides toward mountain hikers, more devastation and more hope emerged. Authorities recovered several more bodies from the slopes of Mount Kinabalu, bringing the death toll from Friday's quake to at least 16, a Malaysian tourism minister said Sunday. Two people remain missing on the mountain, minister Masidi Manjun said. But one person who was thought to be missing has been found safe. While hundreds of workers continue searching for the missing, two countries grieve. Sunday's Malaysian Kaamatan celebration, a harvest festival has been cancelled"as (a) mark of respect to those who perished," Manjun said. He also tweeted that Monday will be a day of mourning in the state of Sabah. Read more...
8th June 2015