NEWS
Cops pledge to bring killers to justice
On the heels of the murder of nine-year-old Emmanuel Cyon Paul and the increase of crime in La Romaine, a police mobile unit will be erected in the community tomorrow. This was disclosed yesterday by acting Senior Superintendent of the Southern Division, Adeline St Louis-Pesnell, at the weekly police briefing at the Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain. St Louis-Pesnell said the instruction to set up the post was given recently by acting Police Commissioner Harold Phillip. “It would be visible to residents and they will have a 24-hour police presence in the community,” she said. Read more here
Ministry plots new Zika response
The Ministry of Health yesterday hosted a meeting with health sector partners to develop a new response to the Zika outbreak now affecting 70 countries worldwide, including TT. Participating at the round-table discussions were the Regional Health Authorities, the Caribbean Public Health Agency, the Pan American Health Organisation, the TT Medical Association, the TT Medical Board and other private medical interests. A ministry release stated the findings of the meeting would be incorporated into the existing integrated management strategy for mosquito-borne diseases to ensure the protection and good health of the population. TT was the first country to declare Zika a national public health emergency on January 29. Read more here
POLITICS
Moonilal threatens to sue over claim
Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has threatened legal action against the Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (Cepep) for publishing a statement on the misappropriation of $39.6 million in funds on construction projects in his Oropouche East constituency. Moonilal denies such projects were undertaken in his constituency, adding Cepep had their information wrong. In the full page statement in the press yesterday, Cepep noted that the company had discovered misappropriation of funds to the tune of $39.6 million spent in Moonilal’s constituency. Read more here
Bill collapse chickens coming home to roost
Former national security minister Gary Griffith says a recent video featuring alleged members of the Rasta City gang brandishing high-powered assault rifles is a result of the collapsed Bail Amendment Bill and anti-gang legislation. Griffith told Newsday yesterday that unless the proper legislation is implemented to ensure the conviction of violent offenders, the public can expect to see similar activities. He said it does not matters not if the video is an old one, the fact that it has surfaced shows that the criminals feel even more emboldened. Read more here
BUSINESS
CWC stake in TSTT up for sale
The two top officials at TSTT— the 51-per cent State-owned telecommunications provider—are calling on the regulators to insist that the 49 per cent minority shareholder, Cable & Wireless Communications, sell its 49 per cent stake in the local company. Read more here
ATTIC confident about FATCA
The Association of TT Insurance Companies (ATTIC) yesterday said Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s signing of the Inter-Government Agreement (IGA) on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance ACT (FATCA) has gone a long way to remove uncertainty in the financial services industry in TT. In a statement, ATTIC said the signing of the IGA by Imbert and United States Ambassador to TT, John Estrada, on August 19, came as a great relief to the Association. ATTIC said the financial services industry has been anticipating the implementation of FATCA for some time and early in the process, the former People’s Partnership (PP) government, announced, “that we would follow the model 1 IGA.” The Association said this IGA is similar to the model adopted by other countries such as Barbados and simply means that local reporting financial institutions will supply information to the local tax authority, who will then report to the US tax authority. Read more here
REGIONAL
CSEC Dilemma - Penwood Students In Limbo Over 'Ungraded' SBAs
The educational progress of approximately 40 students of the Penwood High School in St Andrew has been forced to a halt after a bungling by school administrators resulted in them being 'ungraded' in six subjects sat in this year's Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams. The school failed to submit the samples of School-based Assessments (SBAs), which the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) uses, along with the written exams in May-June, to determine the overall grade of a student in a subject. Several of the students who had hopes of pursuing sixth-form studies or who were depending on the subject results to meet requirements to take their place in tertiary-level institutions will have to delay their plans for at least another 12 months. The CXC released the results of CSEC exams on August 16. According to Donna McLaren, principal of the Olympic Gardens-based school, the CXC called her office on August 8, breaking the news to her that the Barbados-based institution had not received any samples by the July 31 deadline. Read more here
St Kitts-Nevis passes legislation to bring relief to BAICO policyholders
The BAICO (Plan of Arrangement) Bill, 2016, passed into law at the sitting of the St Kitts and Nevis National Assembly on Tuesday, will “provide the legal framework to implement a plan of arrangement to resolve the long outstanding matter of payments to the policyholders of the failed British American Insurance Company (BAICO)”, according to prime minister and minister of finance, Dr Timothy Harris, who brought the Bill to its fruition. The Plan of Arrangement is a statute based court approved legal process under which BAICO may enter into an arrangement or compromise with their creditors. Harris said that “the ECCU [Eastern Caribbean Currency Union] is approaching the problem in a coordinated way” and that “each country has to pass the law.” He outlined that Montserrat passed Plan of Arrangement (BAICO and CLICO) Act No. 5 of 2016, on 27 June 2016 and that a similar Bill was passed in the Parliament of Dominica. The Bill was approved in Antigua and Barbuda (2015), Grenada in July 2015, St Vincent and the Grenadines in October 2015 and Anguilla in November 2015. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Burkini bans: Why France is giving Iran a run for its money
If you look at the headlines coming out of France, you might conclude that the country's famous brand of "laicite," or secularism, is now being defended by a theocracy that would give Iran a run for its money. France seems to have completely turned against Western liberal values -- and there's a danger that France no longer looks any different from Iran or any other theocratic state, where religious police patrol the streets, monitoring women in public places, and checking whether or not they are following the rules. Pictures of a Muslim woman surrounded by armed police on a beach in Nice have rightly caused an outcry. The images show the condescending way law enforcement officers forced the women to undress, while her children watched. Read more here
Italy earthquake: Death toll over 240 amid rescue efforts
25th August 2016