NEWS
100 primary schools failing
More than 100 primary schools are failing in this country says Professor Theodore Lewis, newly appointed chairman of committees to review Early Childhood Education and Primary School curriculum and develop a refereed foundation textbook on the history of Trinidad and Tobago. He made the observation yesterday at a ceremony for the distribution of letters of appointment for the committees, at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair.
Lewis said this figure was alarming and added if problems in education are not identified, it could not be solved. “We have to bear in mind there are schools that are not doing the kind of job with the curriculum and the children who are coming in do not have a chance to do better. If there are schools that are not performing, we will never fix them, until we say they are,” he said. Read more…
Cops step up hunt for guns
Police intend to step up their efforts to recover illegal guns, the weapon of choice used to commit murders, and called for more to be done to stop them from reaching the shores. This after another overnight killing and the death of a man in hospital from gunshot injuries pushed the murder toll to 31 for the year, surpassing last year’s comparable figure of 24 by seven. At a press briefing yesterday at Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain, police boasted of a $6 million drug seizure and recovery of two more illegal guns. Read more…
SWINE FLU DEATH #6
The deadly H1N1 (swine flu) virus has claimed another victim. Jewan Maharaj, 61, died at the Sangre Grande District Health Facility earlier this week after spending 18 days in the Intensive Care Unit. The Ministry of Health said yesterday that Maharaj died of complications arising out of H1N1 influenza and hypertension. There are now six confirmed swine flu-related deaths and 68 laboratory reports of the H1N1 virus. In 2015, there were 29 reported cases. Read more…
POLITICS
PM: No decision to cut scholarships
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday said Government has not taken any decision to cut back on the number of tertiary level scholarships awarded to TT nationals, as a cost cutting initiative. Responding to a question asked by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in Parliament during Prime Minister’s Question Time, Rowley said, “Government has taken no decision at this stage to specifically cut scholarships.” Reiterating there is a need to reduce operating expenses and maximise efficiency because of the current economic challenges, Rowley said this will be guided by advice from the relevant ministry. On another question from Persad-Bissessar as to whether the Law Faculty at UWI’s South Campus in Debe, will be registering students for the 2016/2017 academic year, Rowley said this was a matter “under the control of UWI” which is a regional institution. Read more…
PM on $$ spent for education: Too many students still falling through cracks
Too many students are falling though the cracks and while millions are spent on education there are less educated people in the country. So said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley after distributing letters of appointment to members of the Committee to Review the Early Childhood Education and Primary School Curriculum and the Committee to Develop a Refereed Foundation Textbook on the History of T&T. Read more…
Disrespect for Parliament
THE Government was accused of breaching the Constitution, subverting the Standing Orders and of treating the Parliament and the Police Service Commission (PSC) with “total disregard, disdain and disrespect”. Piloting a motion to annul the Police Service (Selection Process) Order, Chaguanas West MP Ganga Singh made this accusation in the House of Representatives yesterday. Read more…
BUSINESS
Emile Elias: Pay with bonds
Businessman Emile Elias is suggesting that Government settle an estimated $2 billion debt to contractors through the issuing of bonds. Emile Elias, executive chairman of NH International (Caribbean) Limited, offered that opinion during a press conference at his company’s offices at Long Circular Road, St James, yesterday. Elias, who was joined by former president of the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) Winston Riley at the press conference, pointed to a 1989 amendment to the Finance Act which allows construction companies to be paid with bonds. Read more…
Do the right thing
Executive chairman of construction company NH International Emile Elias says the Government must do what is right and pay the $14 million owed to 75-year-old firm Bynoe Rowe Wiltshire Partnership for refurbishment work done on several primary schools six years ago. Read more…
REGIONAL
US Embassy advises pregnant American staff to leave Barbados over Zika worry
With three cases of Zika virus confirmed in Barbados, the United States Embassy in Bridgetown has told its American staffers who are pregnant to get out of the country. The advice came in a security message sent to US citizens at the Embassy yesterday. “The US Embassy to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean, and the OECS advises US citizens that the Ministry of Health of Barbados has confirmed the presence of the mosquito-borne Zika virus on the island . . . The US Embassy has advised its pregnant US citizen staff members or dependents to depart Barbados,” the message read in part. Read more…
Turks and Caicos ministerial code ignored, says former governor
In the second day of his opening statement on behalf of the prosecution on Tuesday in the criminal trial of former Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) premier Michael Misick and others, Andrew Mitchell QC stated that former governor Richard Tauwhare’s view of the Ministerial Code setting out rules of conduct for ministers was that it was in practice ignored. The Ministerial Code of 1998 provided that at all material times, ministers and members of the legislature of the TCI owed a fiduciary duty to the TCI government. Ministers were subject to the Ministerial Code, published in the Gazette on August 28, 1998, which set out a number of specific rules of conduct for ministers and other members of Executive Council (as it then was). Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
Litvinenko: Putin probably approved ex-spy's murder - UK inquiry
Russian President Vladimir Putin probably approved the operation by Russian officials to kill former FSB spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, a detailed UK inquiry has concluded. Retired High Court Judge Robert Owen, who conducted the inquiry, wrote that he was "sure" that two former Russian officials poisoned the 44-year-old at a London hotel with highly radioactive polonium-210. And Owen wrote that he was also "sure" that the two men who poisoned Litvinenko -- former KGB and FSB employee Andrei Lugovoi and former Russian army officer Dmitri Kovtun -- were acting on behalf of others, probably the Russian spy service, the FSB. Read more…
Brazil Zika outbreak: More babies born with birth defects
21st January 2016