NEWS
Judge rules: Church free to make noise
A High Court Judge has ruled in favour of a church and has thrown out the lawsuit of a resident who lives on the same compound but who challenged loud noise emanating from the Church of the Spiritual Metaphysics located in south Trinidad. In a written judgement delivered in San Fernando yesterday, Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh said some faiths are more exuberant and vigorous in their modes of worship. But more so, the judge alluded to the fact the the resident who complained of loud noise, lives on the church’s compound on one lot of land in Forres Park, Claxton Bay, just off the north-bound lane of the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway. Boodoosingh said that it is somewhat unique, where a church is being run on the same lot of land where others, who do not belong to the church, live. The church has been occupying half of the lot for the past 67 years. Greeta Brown, 71, was granted tenancy of the land on which the church was built by her deceased grandmother, Iris Toby. Brown claimed that the licence for occupation expired and she sued for possession of the land. Read more…
$75,000 bail for top cop
Secretary of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association, Insp Michael Seales, was granted $75,000 bail at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court yesterday afternoon after he appeared charged with making a seditious statement on June 24 last year. Seales, who is currently contesting the presidency in the body’s upcoming election, appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar and was represented by Pamela Elder, SC, and Owen Hinds. Elder informed the court Seales was a serving member of the T&T Police Service and as such had an unblemished record. She added that during his 28-year career he had received many commendations, including from the US Department of Justice. Read more…
Colman: Duprey, HCU boss destroyed by own vision
Like Icarus, who in Greek mythology ignored his father and flew too close to the sun with wings of wax and feathers, former CL Financial chairman Lawrence Duprey and Hindu Credit Union ex-president Harry Harnarine ignored all warnings from the Central Bank and auditors and were “destroyed by the sun of their own vision”. Read more…
POLITICS
Rowley orders audit of NLCB
FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert has been instructed by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to institute an audit at the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB) in light of recent allegations of corruption out of that agency. He warned that those found guilty of receiving money under false pretence will have to pay back. Rowley made this known at a PNM meeting Tuesday night at the Scout’s House in Embacadere, San Fernando. Rowley said: “I warned you all before, if the top of the management of the country is corrupt, people who normally would behave properly underneath see what is going on top and then, ‘if the priest could play who is me?’, and all of them start to play.” According to Rowley, the NLCB scandal started in 2013 and he believes it was the “tone and tenor of 2011 and 2012 that caused people to behave like that.” Rowley told the crowd that is the reason only negative responses are received when citizens are questioned about how they feel about the government and opposition. Read more…
Government to audit food card holders
Social Development Minister Cherrie-Ann Critchlow-Cockburn said internal auditors have been asked to do an extensive audit of every one of the 240,000-plus recipients who receive food cards to ensure that they are eligible to be recipients. The minister said they had undertaken the audit of every one of the files because they recognised during the enrolment process that a review was not done on all processes. Critchlow-Cockburn referred to the tightening of the distribution of food cards under the new People National Movement’s (PNM) administration which had seen the removal of some 4,000 cardholders who were not eligible for the service. She said the removal of the 4,000 had saved government $25 million on an annual basis. Read more…
Govt cuts Soca on the Seas funding
Government sponsorship for the Soca on the Seas cruise has been cut.
This was confirmed yesterday by Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe who told the Express by phone that the allocation from her ministry would be $65,000 and no longer $225,000. It was previously reported that the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts would inject $225,000 to the event and the Tourism Ministry $225,000, bringing the total to $450,000. The sum has now been reduced to $290,000. Cudjoe told the Express that her ministry spent $65,000 toward the media launch of the event and there will be no further funding. The minister said that she had indicated at the launch that funding would be determined following the consultations with stakeholders. Read more…
BUSINESS
Rowley: Pray for oil and gas
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is very optimistic about finding oil and gas in wells being drilled in the northern deep water blocks operated by BHP Billiton. If the exercise is a success, he said, it would be a watershed development and he called on the country to pray that it is not a dry hole. Rowley visited the Transocean’s Deepwater Invictus drill ship on Tuesday, accompanied by Vincent Pereira, BHP Billiton Country Manager for T&T, Derek Cardno, Vice President of Drilling and Completions, and a contingent of BHP Billiton officials. He was given to an extensive guided tour of the state-of-the-art ship which is currently engaged in an offshore drilling campaign on behalf of BHP Billiton. Commenting on his visit to the deepwater blocks “where BHP, Shell and BP are breaking new grounds,” Rowley said he knows people feel the country should not set it sights on the hydrocarbon sector because of the low oil and gas prices on the international market. Read more…
$Billion failed GTL project sold for $220m
The failed billion-dollar World GTL project has been resuscitated at a massive loss to taxpayers. The gas-to-liquids project at Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre facility, which cost some $2.8 billion to construct, has been conditionally sold to NiQuan Energy for $220 million. Read more…
REGIONAL
Former High Commissioner To UK Urges Diaspora To Vote To Remain In EU
Ambassador Burchell Whiteman, a former high commissioner of Jamaica to the United Kingdom (UK), has urged Jamaican immigrants in Britain to vote for that country to remain in the European Union (EU). Britons will today decide, in a referendum popularly referred to as Brexit, whether Britain should leave the EU. "I think the Jamaican Diaspora in the UK ought to favour a stay campaign, which is more open to a broad approach to the migration issue," he said while sharing his personal views on the referendum with The Gleaner. The fact that the Leave campaign, which has been fuelled largely by the anti-immigration sentiments of the euro-sceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) and its populist leader Nigel Farage, poses a significant threat to the Jamaican immigrant community is one of the key reasons Whiteman believes British-Jamaicans should support the stay campaign. Read more…
Cuba to build the largest tourist facility in the Caribbean
Cuba will sign a contract for the creation of a joint venture this year directed at the development of a golf complex in the province of Pinar del Rio that will be upon completion one of the largest in Latin America and the Caribbean. Yuslenia Saumell, business specialist at the tourism ministry, said that before the end of the year they will iron out the proposal with the Spanish company that will execute the works alongside its Cuban counterpart in the Punta Colorada project. She also said that a similar project in El Salado, which is part of the Mariel Special Development Zone, is also in its final approval stage. Created with the Chinese Beijing Enterprises Holdings Limited company and the British Essence Hotels and Resorts, there are currently two joint firms for the construction of the site associated with golf courses in Bello Monte in Havana and in Varadero resort. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
European Union referendum: UK goes to the polls
Voting is under way in a historic referendum on whether the UK should remain a member of the European Union or leave. A record 46,499,537 people are entitled to take part, according to provisional figures from the Electoral Commission. Polling stations opened at 07:00 BST and will close at 22:00 BST. It is only the third nationwide referendum in UK history and comes after a four-month battle for votes between the Leave and Remain campaigns. In common with other broadcasters, the BBC is limited in what it can report while polls are open but you can follow the results as they come in across the BBC after polls close on Thursday evening. The referendum ballot paper asks the following question: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?" Whichever side gets more than half of all votes cast is considered to have won. The weather forecast for polling day is mixed. There have been thunderstorms in London and south-east England which caused flooding overnight. Kingston upon Thames Council in south west London has moved two polling stations after they were inundated with water. Read more…
GOP fails to stop Democrats' sit-in on House floor
The Republicans tried to shut it down, but the Democrats' nearly day-long sit-in was still going Thursday and showed no signs of letting up. In the middle of the night, House Republicans had sought to end an extraordinary day of drama and what has become a 20-hour sit-in by adjourning for a recess that will last through July 5. The move was an effort to shut down a protest that began Wednesday morning when Democrats took over the House floor and tried to force votes on gun control. But shortly after 7:00 a.m., about 20 Democrats still remained on the floor, including House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, and they were determined to continue. A police officer told the Democrats that they will be conducting a daily security sweep. "I'd ask that you clear the floor while that happens," the officer said. Pelosi responded: "That's not going to happen" and the security check then took place involving five agents and a dog as the House Democratic leader continued speaking, undeterred. Read more…
23rd June 2016