Daily Briefing
Wednesday 13th May, 2015
NEWS
MP’s Driver Revs Up
Cabinet Minister and incumbent United National Congress parliamentarian, Dr Rupert Griffith, risks being replaced by his chauffeur to contest the Toco/Sangre Grande seat in the forthcoming general elections. In fact the driver, David John, filed his nomination papers yesterday at the United National Congress (UNC) headquarters at Rienzi Complex, Couva, hoping to be selected as the candidate for the area. And he says that his experience as Griffith’s chauffeur – a job he has held for the last five years – helped to qualify him for the position as MP of Toco/Sangre Grande in that he has had a chance to see the work that needs to be done in the area through his driving Griffith around. Read more…
Man murdered after Mother’s Day lime
A licensed moneylender was gunned down in front his Laventille home yesterday in what police labelled a gang-related hit. According to police reports, 44-year-old Preston “Cocksy” Edwards had just arrived at his apartment at Building 12 along Leon Street, Success Village, Laventille, around 2.25 am when he was ambushed and shot in the back of his head. Police said money in Edwards’ pocket was untouched but his killer/s took some of his gold jewelry. Investigators described Edwards as a “community leader’. Speaking with members of the media at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday, one of Edwards’ brothers, Kerwin Jackie, said it was pure envy and malice that led to his brother’s death. Read more…
Howai: Messenger walked into bank and requested transfer
VIDEO footage of a “messenger” from the National Energy Corporation (National Energy, formerly NEC) walking into a First Citizens bank and requesting a transfer, which may have resulted in an act of fraud, is now in the hands of the police, Finance Minister Larry Howai said yesterday. In the meantime, another twist in the case has emerged, with Opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley, who spoke on the $60 million fraud at a People's National Movement (PNM) public meeting last week, disclosing in an interview on i95 FM on Monday that the husband of one employee who was contesting a decision to have her fired or suspended had since been gruesomely murdered. Read more…
POLITICS
Rowley questions cheap houses
Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley yesterday questioned how practical was Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s election promise to sell Housing Development Corporation (HDC) houses to 30-year occupants for $100. Rowley, who is also People’s National Movement (PNM) political leader and Diego Martin West MP, also how practical it would be regularising all squatters from Carenage to Toco, should the People’s Partnership be re-elected to office. Persad-Bissessar, who is also United National Congress (UNC) political leader, made these statements at a UNC public meeting in Diego Martin on Monday night. Rowley, who served as Housing Minister in the former PNM government from November 10 , 2003 to November 7, 2007, asked, “What are the practical ownership of the thousands of (HDC) apartments for $100?” Read more…
BUSINESS
No declines as $2.5 in shares traded
Overall market activity resulted from trading in 14 securities of which five advanced, none declined and nine traded firm. Trading activity on the First Tier Market registered a volume of 192,745 shares crossing the floor of the Exchange valued at $2,534,520.56. JMMB Group Limited was the volume leader with 142,721 shares changing hands for a value of $78,496.55, followed by Scotiabank T&T Limited with a volume of 20,000 shares being traded for $1,250,200. National Flour Mills Limited contributed 6,304 shares with a value of $10,590.72, while First Citizens Bank Limited added 5,904 shares valued at $211,341. Read more…
T&T negotiates for additional cruise calls
Tourism Minister Gerald Hadeed met this week with senior executives from three cruise ship lines. Steven Young of P&O Cruises, James Langley of Saga Cruises and Claudius Docekal of Azamara Club Cruises are on a familiarisation visit to T&T to see what the country has to offer their ships and passengers on a cruise call. Discussions focused on ways in which the number of cruise calls could be increased, possibilities for home porting and fuel bunkering and other vessel provisioning and how T&T could develop unique and different shore excursions that will appeal to passengers. Read more…
Victory for oil industry
Oil and gas giant BP Trinidad and Tobago (bpTT) has announced the arrival of the Ocean Victory semi-submersible drilling rig, which will begin drilling the company's Juniper wells off the Southeast coast of Trinidad by the middle of the month. The rig is owned and operated by Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. It is under contract for an initial term of two years and is expected to drill five subsea wells to be tied into the Juniper platform. A statement from bpTT yesterday said the Ocean Victory will move to the offshore site for the Juniper field after it takes on personnel, equipment and supplies. Read more…
Venezuela recommits to Petrocaribe
Petrocaribe is here to stay, asserted Alexander Yanez Deleuze, Venezuela Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the recent Forum on the Future of the Caribbean, held at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine and the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain. Despite a prolonged lull in the world oil-price, Yanez Deleuze assured that Petrocaribe and the regional grouping, ALBA, are part of the future of the Caribbean, related a statement from the Venezuela Embassy in Port-of-Spain on Monday. ALBA, formally the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (Spanish: Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América), is an intergovernmental organization based on the idea of the social, political and economic integration of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Read more…
REGIONAL
IMF concludes review mission to Jamaica
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission visited Jamaica during May 4–12, 2015, to conduct discussions on the eighth review of Jamaica’s IMF-supported program under the extended fund facility (EFF). At the conclusion of the mission IMF mission chief Jan Kees Martijn and incoming mission chief Uma Ramakrishnan issued the following statement in Kingston: “The mission reached preliminary agreement with the authorities on a package of policies that aims at completing the eighth review under the EFF. Consideration by the IMF’s Executive Board is tentatively scheduled for June 2015. Upon approval, SDR 28.32 million (about US$40 million) would be made available to Jamaica. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
Gunmen in Pakistan kill 43 in attack on bus carrying religious minority
Gunmen on motorbikes attacked a bus carrying members of a religious minority in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Wednesday, killing 43 people and wounding 19 others, hospital officials said. Six attackers used 9 mm pistols to shoot at the people on the bus, police said. After the attack, the bus was driven into a hospital parking lot with bullet holes riddled all along its side, said Salma Wahid, an official at the Memon Medical Institute Hospital in Karachi. Most of the people in the bus were unconscious and splattered with blood, she said. Read more
13th May 2015