NEWS
Not The First Time
Through tears of shame, two sisters aged nine and 14, yesterday told police that when they were rescued on Tuesday by police, as a man was sexually assaulting inside his heavily tinted van, this was not the first time he had sexually abused them. The shocking admission came as officials of the Police Cyber Crime Unit found nude photos of the nine-year-old in the 39-year-old suspect’s cellular phone. The sisters spent several hours in the company of Child Protection Unit (CPU) officers PC Alcala and WPC Quashie at the Oropouche Police Station, relating through sobs and sometimes hesitatingly - through shame - what that man had been doing to them. The man, who remains in police custody, is a friend of the girls’ father. The children spent Tuesday night at home and yesterday were taken to the Oropouche Police Station by Ag Sgt Ramlogan, the officer who rescued them on Tuesday. Read more…
Faith bodies blast IRO boss’ child marriage claim
There was no consensus on the Inter-Religious Organisation’s (IRO) decision to support the continuation of child marriages, Archbishop Joseph Harris said yesterday, adding that forcing children into wedlock is “legalised statutory rape.” Harris made the claim in response to IRO head Brother Harrypersad Maharaj’s announcement that members had unanimously agreed that no law should interfere with their custom at a recent meeting. It also came as other faith-based organisations condemned Harrypersad’s stance on child marriages, believing it had the backing of all IRO members. Addressing issues relating to the Catholic faith in an interview on the Archdiocese of Port-of- Spain’s Facebook page yesterday, Harris said neither he nor the church’s regular representative, Fr Martin Sirju, attended the meeting and were thus not part of that discussion. He said they were also not contacted by the IRO on that decision nor did they put forward any agreement on the position. Read more…
Appeal for parents to be vigilant
The Children's Authority yesterday issued a statement on the incident involving the rescue of the two children in Barrackpore. The statement read: “The Children's Authority of Trinidad and Tobago is once again appealing to parents to be extremely vigilant in ensuring the safety of their children and to report all incidents or suspicions of child abuse. The call comes in light of media reports of two children who were rescued (Tuesday). The Authority's Emergency Response Team visited the family last evening and provided support to the children and their mother. The Authority is continuing to provide the necessary counselling and other interventions, given the traumatic experience. As the Authority marks its first anniversary, director Sharifa Ali-Abdullah, says, “As we commemorate our anniversary today our hearts remain heavy and burdened with the number and horrific cases we deal with but this is really the best opportunity children have ever had in this country to be protected.” Read more…
POLITICS
Govt hints at change to Marriage Act
Government gave its strongest hint yet that it will change existing laws governing the age in which people can legally marry in this country as as to align the age of marriage with the legal age of consent. The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) issued a media release which took issue with assertions of President of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) Bro Harrypersad Maharaj and Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) Satnarayan Maharaj, that child marriages should continue without any State interference. At present, TT has the Hindu Marriage Act; the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act; the Orisha Marriage Act and the Marriage Act, which governs the age persons can get married from the various main religious faiths and via common law. The OPM made it clear the age of marriage stands in conflict with the age of consent, and therefore it is critical both ages are the same, i.e 18 years. Significantly, while the IRO and SDMS made it clear they are not in favour of government intervention, the OPM has found support in several religious leaders including Archbishop of Port-of-Spain Fr Joseph Harris who yesterday likened child marriages to legalised rape. Read more…
Kamla on AG’s Dana statement: It can cause mistrial
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi’s recent disclosure that Strategic Services Agency (SSA) work resulted in people being brought before the courts concerning the murder of State prosecutor Dana Seetahal, could prejudice prosecution of the accused and cause a mistrial, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has warned. Speaking at a media briefing at the Opposition’s Port-of-Spain office yesterday, she added:“Did the AG consider that he could well have undermined the exact work of the SSA in solving this crime by his reckless and irresponsible statements? “He has disclosed to the public the means and the nature of the information that the prosecution would have to reply upon in this prosecution by the State. “This could now lead to applications for disclosure by the accused of this sensitive information which could adversely affect the prosecution of this matter and could cause mistrial.” Read more…
Campaign finance legislation before 2020 general election
It is the will of the Government to have campaign finance legislation in place before the next general election, says Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley. Rowley was speaking yesterday at the seminary of campaign finance reform, hosted by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, at Hyatt Regency hotel, Port of Spain. The next general election is constitutionally due in 2020. Read more…
BUSINESS
BHP Billiton: TT still a good place to invest
BHP Billiton says it will continue to invest in this country even as the oil and gas industry is experiencing “unprecedented volatility”. Speaking yesterday at the launch of the S92 helicopter at Bristow Hangar, Piarco, Country Manager of BHP Billiton, Vincent Pereira said when many companies are scaling back and abandoning projects, the company has chosen to ramp up their investments. “This is a good place for us to invest, we know that and we are going to continue to do that,” he said. That investment is a deepwater drilling campaign off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago which is expected to begin in just a few days. Pereira explained that Phase one of the campaign would last approximately nine months and will see the company drilling two to three wells. “After which we would pause. The reason for that is we are taking a very purposeful approach with regards to drilling in frontier deepwater areas so we would drill, we would learn, we will integrate those learning and we would drill again,” he said. As part of its campaign, the S-92 helicopter will be used to provide offshore transportation. Read more…
Trade T&T electricity for Venezuela’s oil
A suggestion was made yesterday for this country to consider supplying neighbouring Venezuela with its surplus electricity in exchange for oil. According to Baajnath Sirinath, senior adviser to the chairman of local conglomerate Massy Group, now that PowerGen Port of Spain and ArcelorMittal Point Lisas are closed down, there is spare capacity in Trinidad and Tobago’s electricity system. ArcelorMittal was identified as the single largest user of electricity in the country. Read more…
REGIONAL
Visiting academic jailed in the Cayman Islands over room dispute
The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) has defended a decision to put a leading international academic, who was visiting Cayman with her son for the recent invitational football tournament, in jail following an accommodation dispute. Dr Fuambai Ahmadu, a former consultant with UNICEF and a world expert on female genital mutilation, was locked-up after she was arrested at the airport following a dispute at the bed and breakfast in Grand Cayman where she stayed. Ahamadu said the landlord broke the contract when he booted her out because she would not pay the full bill in cash at the start of her stay. The police justified their action, maintaining that they had investigated the complaint “and sufficient grounds were found for an arrest”. An RCIPS spokesperson told CNS that this was supported by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), which authorised the charge. Read more…
'NO EASY TASK' - Holness Eyes Debt-For-Policy Swaps, Urges Innovative Thinking To Spur Economic Growth
A crippling debt burden militating against the efforts of Caribbean countries to attain economic growth has pushed Prime Minister Andrew Holness to propose the implementation of debt-for-policy swap initiatives in the region. Holness was addressing the 46th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in Montego Bay, St James, yesterday. According to Holness, while the region has made progress in terms of its development, it nonetheless finds itself in challenging and uncertain times as its advancements have not always been financed through productivity and economic growth. "After approximately 50 years of independence as a region, the Caribbean has recorded impressive developments in an array of social and economic indicators such that the region has graduated to a category, as classified by international development institutions, where it no longer qualifies for certain types of assistance," he said. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
Superbugs will 'kill every three seconds'
EgyptAir missing plane MS804: Live updates
EgyptAir Flight 804 from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar with 66 people on board, the airline said. Here's what we know so far: • The Airbus A320 was flying at 37,000 feet when it disappeared. Greek controllers tried to reach the plane 10 miles before it left the country's airspace but received no response. The plane "swerved 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right" before plunging into the Mediterranean, a Greek official says. The location of last contact was 173 miles (280 kilometers) from the Egyptian coast, the airline said. A distress signal was detected in the vicinity where the flight disappeared from radar 2 hours later, but it could have come from another vessel. Read more…
19th May 2016