NEWS

Liat says it is not being dissolved

Liat is not being dissolved and flights to its 15 destinations continue to operate normally, the beleaguered regional airline has said. Last month, at a press conference following his return from a CARICOM heads of government meeting, the Prime Minister said that unless Liat received an emergency injection of at least US$5 million, the airline was in danger of collapsing. The airline is collectively owned by the governments of Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica, which control 94.7 per cent of the company’s shares. Read more here

Man dumped into well dies

Po­lice are now seek­ing to amend the charge against Siparia ven­dor Mukey Pierre from kid­nap­ping with the in­tent to mur­der, to out­right mur­der, af­ter his vic­tim, Romeo Mitchell, died on Tues­day night. In­ves­ti­ga­tors said Mitchell, who suf­fered spinal in­juries and bro­ken legs af­ter he was beat­en and dumped in the Pe­nal #25 Well on March 18, died around 9 pm at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. Be­fore he died, he was able to give po­lice a brief state­ment last week­end. The Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions, Re­gion Three, has now joined the case and in­ves­ti­ga­tors said an au­top­sy has to be done on Mitchell. Once it is found his death was due to in­juries he suf­fered dur­ing the kid­nap­ping and beat­ing, a re­port will be sub­mit­ted to the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions re­quest­ing the charge against Pierre be up­grad­ed to mur­der. Read more here

POLITICS

Education Ministry reviews scholarships

The Ministry of Education is working on revising the national scholarship programme to put a focus on technical vocational skills. Dr Lovell Francis, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, revealed this yesterday at the Integrated Arts and Technology Project showcase at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Department of Creative and Festival Arts, Gordon Street, St Augustine. He said, “All of the data we have from the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Labour and our ministry that does projection of jobs in the future says that the skills areas have the greatest potential for growth in the economy. We have not been doing ourselves a service by not expending more energy, time and effort in ensuring our skills training spectrum service – technical vocational education have the most potential for growth.” Read more here

Venezuelans claim Immigration officers in racket

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young is chal­leng­ing ac­tivist Yese­nia Gon­za­les and oth­er Venezue­lan na­tion­als to bring ev­i­dence they have against Im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cers they al­lege are tak­ing bribes from Venezue­lan na­tion­als seek­ing to gain en­try in­to T&T and to stay here af­ter their time has elapsed. Young made the call yes­ter­day, hours af­ter Gon­za­les made the claim on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew and some of her com­pa­tri­ots backed up the al­le­ga­tion. “A par­tic­u­lar per­son of Venezue­lan her­itage…let’s call her that…was mak­ing a whole host of al­le­ga­tions…I am call­ing on Ms Gon­za­les, if she has ev­i­dence of any of those ac­tiv­i­ties, to come for­ward to the TTPS and give the in­for­ma­tion to them,” Young said af­ter at­tend­ing a pass­ing out pa­rade for po­lice of­fi­cers at the St James Train­ing Acad­e­my. Read more here

BUSINESS

Women (and men) smash stereotypes

“Some of the most vulnerable women in our society are those who are battling addiction and for one reason or another are unable or willing to access our rehabilitation programme,” said Hulsie Bhaggan. Bhaggan, clinical director of New Life Ministries Rehabilitation Centre, was speaking during a panel discussion recently, hosted by Shell Trinidad and Tobago Limited to commemorate International Women’s Day (March 8). More men are seeking help in her programme than women, she said, which was concerning, but the women who do come are more motivated to stay clean. She said more needed to be done to encourage the women in vulnerable situations to get help. Read more here

New jobs in low-carbon future

A just or fair transition from fossil fuels to a low-carbon economy has been described as one of the greatest societal challenges of our time. However, one UK energy professor believes the transition also presents significant new opportunities globally, including the creation of jobs. Read more here

REGIONAL

Potential Problems For Some Companies, Gov't Entities When 10-Digit Dialling Takes Full Effect

Some major financial institutions, security companies and government entities could run into problems come March 30 when the mandatory 10-digit dialing comes into full effect. According to telecommunications company, Flow, the companies and institutions have not yet completed the necessary steps to facilitate 10-digit dialing.It said, some alarm systems, point of sale terminals and PBXs could be negatively impacted if the necessary modifications have not been done. Director of Corporate Communications and Stakeholder Management at Flow, Kayon Mitchell, said while there are several technical companies that can perform system reconfigurations, the testing and validation process requires Flow’s support to be properly implemented. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Brexit: Process in deadlock as MPs seek consensus

The Brexit process remains in deadlock as MPs struggle to find a consensus on the next steps. The Commons failed to find a majority for a way forward after voting for eight different options on Wednesday. And while some senior Brexiteers have moved towards supporting Theresa May's deal, the MPs she relies on in the DUP have refused to alter their stance. The PM won some support by saying she would resign ahead of the next round of EU negotiations if her deal passes. This means she still may bring her plan back to the Commons this week for another vote - the so-called "meaningful vote three" - despite it already being defeated twice by large margins. Read more here

Trump and Comey clash over outcome of Mueller probe

The ill feeling between Former FBI Director James Comey and the President who fired him burst back into the open in dueling interviews on Wednesday that followed the end of the Robert Mueller investigation. Their fresh clash revived the mystery of their short, disastrous relationship at the beginning of President Donald Trump's term, which plunged the administration into crisis and led to the appointment of the special counsel. In retrospect, Trump's move in firing Comey was the start of a long-term power play that established the President's dominance over the judicial establishment. Read more here

28th March 2019

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