DAILY BRIEF
THURSDAY 18TH JUNE, 2015
NEWS
No one told me
The officer heading the Police Special Branch two years ago when a ganja-like substance was found on the grounds of the Prime Minister’s private home is insisting that no one told her of the incident back then. “I was not informed about the ganja find and I do not know why no one told me” that officer, now Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Anne Marie Alleyne-Daly insisted to Newsday about the ganja find in a washroom at the gazebo of the Prime Minister’s residence in Phillipine, south Trinidad, at 8.30 am on April 19, 2013. Newsday attempted to ascertain from Alleyne-Daly the reason she was not informed but she again insisted she did not know. .Alleyne-Daly is now in charge of administration at the Police Administration Building, Sackville Street, Port of Spain, and is one of three deputy commissioners in the Police Service. She is the most senior DCP and has acted as commissioner on several occasions. Read more...
Dookeran defends PM
fter devoting 34 years of his life to serving his country, Winston Dookeran is bowing out of politics. And in bidding goodbye yesterday, he praised Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, saying the attacks against her must be stopped. Dookeran, 71, who started his political career in 1981, also disclosed that his biggest disappointment was that the party he founded — the Congress of the People (COP) — never grew and flourished as it should, given the high expectations the electorate placed on it back in 2006 when it was born. The Tunapuna MP and Foreign Affairs Minister held an emotional ceremony at his Tunapuna constituency office where he announced to his staff and supporters that he will be retiring from political life.. Read more...
Drugs, guns seized after high-speed chase
Three children were among six people injured when a car being chased by police crashed into two vehicles in Siparia yesterday. Siparia CID officers seized 34 packets of high-grade marijuana and a package of pure cocaine, together valued at $2.5 million. A machine gun and a Glock pistol were also found in the car. According to police, a team of officers, including Insp Anderson Pariman, Sgt Rishi Ramsaran and PC Alvin Rampersad, went in search of two men and a woman in a Honda Civic who had just left a Palo Seco beach after purchasing the drugs and guns. On spotting the police vehicle near Siparia, the suspects sped off along the SS Erin Road. When they reached the busy High Street, Siparia, the driver collided with a Nissan Laurel and the Mitsubishi Lancer at Coora Road junction. Read more...
POLITICS
PNM meets EBC today
The Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) will meet today with the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) at the Commission’s Scott House headquarters in Port-of- Spain at 10.30 am.This was disclosed by PNM General Secretary Ashton Ford following a special PNM General Council meeting at the party’s Balisier House headquarters in Port-of-Spain yesterday. Ford, PNM chairman Franklin Khan and the party’s elections officer Foster Cummings will discuss with the EBC “matters pertaining to the general elections.” Last Friday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced general election will be held on September 7. Asked if there were any specific issues the party would raise with the EBC, Ford replied, “Not yet.” Opposition Leader and PNM political leader Dr Keith Rowley has written to Caricom requesting that it send election observers to TT for the September 7 polls. Read more...
Bhagwansingh’s: Political message not ours
Bhagwansingh’s and Dansteel yesterday distanced their businesses from an image circulating on social media with a political message using Bhagwansingh’s name.The image is a photo of Bhagwansingh’s hardware at Golden Grove Road, Arouca with a message edited above the store’s sign which states, “Please be advised that due to the People’s Partnership’s incessant misbehaviour in public office we are out of Gates until further notice”. In a statement,Bhagwansingh’s and Dansteel said the image was used without its permission and it was requesting that the author/authors of the image “cease and desist from using the company’s brand for political mileage.” “Bhagwansingh’s Hardware and Group is a corporate citizen of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, we believe in the democratic principles of which our nation is built upon, we believe in the right of free speech..” Read more...
BUSINESS
Plea for SJLRC workers’ backpay
Chairman of San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation (SJLRC) Anthony Roberts is pleading with Government to make funding available to the corporation to pay the outstanding nine percent retroactive pay on the salaries of daily-rated workers for 2011 to 2013.“I am calling on Government whether it be through the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Local Government to make funding available for us to pay the workers so we can get on with the business of the people,” Roberts said. Roberts made the plea yesterday at a press conference held at the Council Chamber, MTS Plaza, Aranjuez noting that some 1,000 employees of the corporation and council members of the SJLRC were frustrated at the non-payment of the backpay which was agreed to during the early part of 2014. Read more...
US$120m World Bank help for struggling C’bean countries
The Washington-based World Bank Group’s board of executive directors endorsed the new Regional Partnership Strategy (RPS) for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) for the period 2015-2019, focused on creating the conditions for sustainable and inclusive growth in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The announcement was made at a press conference to start the second day of the third regional Caribbean Growth Forum hosted at the Sandal Resort here by the World Bank. The new strategy proposes a lending programme of about US$120 million for the period and, in addition, includes an allocation of about US$92 million for Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines from the International Development Association (IDA). Read more...
Bank’s reputation takes a hit from FIFA scandal
CIBC First Caribbean International (CIBC FCI), one of the six regional banks implicated in the FIFA scandal involving former FIFA vice president Jack Warner and 13 other FIFA executives has said the fraud allegations have impacted on the bank’s reputation. Speaking at a press conference at the Hyatt Ziva Rose Hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica yesterday, ahead of a two-day infrastructure conference, outgoing CIBC FCI chief executive officer Rik Parkhill said the bank is doing a thorough review of its fraud and money laundering policies. It is alleged that an executive of the bank’s Bahamas branch made a trip to New York to collect a US$250, 000 cheque from FIFA executive Chuck Blazer, then returned to the Bahamas to deposit the money into Blazer’s Nassau, Bahamas account. The US$250, 000 was said to be part of the US$10 million bribe to influence votes in the 2010 World Cup. Read more...
MoU signed for new apprenticeship programme
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Industry Association (ARIA) and Peake Industries Limited to establish an Air Condition and Refrigeration (ACR) Apprenticeship Programme. The signing, witnessed by Tertiary Education Mnister Fazal Karim, took place recently at the National Energy Skills Center (NESC) Point Lisas. The ACR Apprenticeship Programme will aid in production of the required quantity and quality of skilled persons to meet the demands of the sector. The MoU sanctions the parties involved to co-operate on a five year project establishing the programme. It will engage the sector to support learning and work-based training where learning is facilitated through observation, simulation, practice and interaction with experienced practitioners. It will utilise the On the Job Training (OJT) Programme and those involved in the Workforce Assessment Centres. . Read more...
REGIONAL
Antigua-Barbuda to host major CARICOM development forum
“CARICOM Overcoming Challenges: Pathway to Development” is the focus of a major regional forum to be held in Antigua and Barbuda on Tuesday, 23 June 2015. Prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Brown, will be among the forum’s list of high level presenters, drawn from the Caribbean Community, the EU delegation to the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados, Caribbean Export Development Agency, the Organisation of American States and the Caribbean Court of Justice. Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to CARICOM, Dr Clarence Henry, said the forum’s objectives are to sensitise the public about the CARICOM strategic plan and the reform process of the integration architecture including its governance arrangements.
INTERNATIONAL
Charleston church shooting: 9 killed in what officials call a hate crime
A woman who survived the shooting says the gunman said he was letting her live so that she could tell people what happened, Charleston NAACP President Dot Scott told CNN. The person who shot and killed nine people at Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was there for about an hour, attending a meeting with the eventual victims, before he began shooting, Charleston police Chief Greg Mullen said Thursday morning. The suspect is in his early 20s and stands 5 feet, 9 inches tall. "He has on a very distinctive sweatshirt as well as the vehicle, with a very distinctive license plate," the police chief said. He didn't start shooting right away, police said. The white man spent an hour in a prayer meeting at the historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday night before he opened fire, killing nine people, Read more...
18th June 2015