NEWS
Dad The Kidnapper
A seven-year-old boy and his five-year-old sister have been reunited with their mother after police rescued the children from their father who had abducted them in an act of revenge. In February, the children’s mother took them and fled the abusive relationship she had endured with their father for ten years, and in an angry reaction to her move, police believe the father planned to get his children back by force. His scheme was a kidnap plot which began on March 11 when the boy went missing from his school in Sangre Grande. When the woman went to pick up her son, teachers told her his father had taken him before classes ended. The woman made a report to the Sangre Grande police. The woman did not have an address for the children’s father as he never told her where he lived. Officers went to the homes of the man’s relatives but he was not with any of them. Read more…
T&T national survives Istanbul airport attack
T&T national Sherlin Stewart, who travelled through Turkey’s Ataturk airport on Tuesday, escaped unhurt in the terrorist attack which occurred at that airport that day, the Foreign Affairs Ministry has confirmed. A traumatised Stewart, who was in Turkey up to yesterday, told relatives in T&T, via Facebook, that she had to run when she heard explosions at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport and she had recounted a scene of “utter chaos” that day. The Islamic State (ISIS) is believed to be responsible for Tuesday’s attack at the main international terminal at Ataturk, which left 41 dead—mainly Turkish citizens—and 239 injured after three suicide bombers struck in tandem. Thirteen foreigners, from China, Jordan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Iran and Ukraine, were killed in the attack. The attackers first fired shots at people in the terminal before detonating suicide vests. Read more…
I’ve Had Enough!
Former Petrotrin chairman Malcolm Jones says he has had enough of being condemned and has therefore resigned his Cabinet-approved position on the Standing Committee on Energy. His exit comes just months after his October 2015 appointment and amid a veil of secrecy. Read more…
POLITICS
AG confident of Opposition support
Government is confident it will get support from the Opposition in the House of Representatives on Friday to pass the Miscellaneous Provisions (Anti-Gang and Bail) Bill 2016 . Attorney General (AG) Faris Al-Rawi expressed this confidence to reporters yesterday following discussions with the Opposition at Tower D of the Port-of-Spain International Waterfront Centre . The Bill requires a three-fifths majority for passage in the House and the Senate. Read more…
Acting CoP dismisses contract rumours
Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams will be reporting to the office as normal tomorrow. Dispelling rumours circulating yesterday that he would be proceeding on vacation from July 1, after his contract as head of the Police Service had not been renewed, Williams stated: “That information is totally incorrect.” Approached to address the claims during his attendance at the Traffic Safety Awards at the Ministry of Works and Transport, Port-of-Spain, Williams said: “I don’t know anything about going on vacation on Friday or any issue with any contract. “On Friday, I will be here. I have no contract. I am a police officer employed on what we can call an indeterminate period of employment.” Williams further explained: “As a public officer, I can work until 60 and beyond 60, there can be extensions by way of the law. I am on no fixed-term contract.” He said the only police commissioner to have been offered a fixed term contract was former head of the T&T Police Service, Dwayne Gibbs. Read more…
Kamla: Resignation just the start; we need answers
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday said Malcolm Jones’s resignation from the Standing Committee on Energy was “not enough”. “Resignation is only the start,” she said in an e-mailed response to questions on the issue. “The country needs answers,” she added. She said Jones was hand-picked by the Prime Minister despite legal proceedings against him. Read more…
BUSINESS
T&T must be FATCA compliant by Sept 30
Bankers are frustrated over the long awaited passage and implementation of legislation for T&T to become FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) compliant. The implications of non-compliance can result in T&T being unable to trade internationally. It can also result in a 30 per cent withholding tax implemented on US dollars flowing into the banking system in T&T from the US, bankers said yesterday. “You may have US correspondent banks who may say since you are not FATCA compliant, I am not going to have a correspondent-banking relationship with you because you are not compliant with the dictates of the US government. It could impact correspondent banking relationships,” said Daryl White, president of the Banking Association of T&T. Read more…
115% increase in cruise ship visitors
Trinidad and Tobago has seen a 115 per cent increase in cruise ship visitors for the 2015-2016 season, in spite of negative travel advisories from some countries. Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe, in congratulating the Tourism Development Company (TDC) at an end-of-season event at the Cruise Ship Complex along Dock Road, Port of Spain yesterday, said the last time the most recent figures were comparable was during the 2009-2010 season. Read more…
REGIONAL
Amnesty International Demands Action From West Kingston Report
Amnesty International has thrown its full support behind the just released report of the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry and is demanding that the Jamaican Government immediately detail how it plans to implement the recommendations put forward. On June 15, the three-member committee published a detailed, approximately 900-page report (including annexes) of its findings from the commission of enquiry that was convened to investigate the events that took place in May 2010 in west Kingston when the security forces went in search of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke. According to a statement from Amnesty International, "What followed was the large-scale loss of lives and some of the most grave human-rights violations seen in the English-speaking Caribbean in recent history." The group said that following the operation, it joined several other human-rights organisations in calling for a commission of enquiry. Read more…
Grenada PM reshuffles cabinet
In a national address on Tuesday, Grenada’s prime minister, Dr Keith Mitchell, announced a number of changes in Cabinet responsibilities, in accordance with what he described as a commitment given in 2013 continually to adjust ministerial positions to improve efficiency and to give members different experiences, especially those who have served for a long time in any one area. The changes he announced were also influenced by several critical considerations. “There is a growing need to provide more support in the ministry of agriculture, lands, forestry, fisheries and the environment, which have additional challenges at this time. We are bringing in personnel with different skill sets to take on very specific areas within that ministry. “Within the prime minister’s extensive ministry, there is also a need for increased expertise, given the series of expanded services we are planning to undertake and manage in the coming period, such as paying executive attention to cost-savings and waste management within government, as well as a more vigorous focus on implementation, given the variety of projects that are either on stream or in train,” Mitchell said. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
Michael Gove and Theresa May head five-way Conservative race
Istanbul airport attackers were from Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, official says
The attackers who carried out Tuesday's shootings and suicide bombings at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, a Turkish official told CNN Thursday. Turkish authorities had previously said they had indications the men were foreigners, but had not said where they came from. Also Thursday, Turkish Interior Minister Efkar Ala announced that the death toll from the attacks had risen to 43, according to state news agency Anadolu. While no one has yet claimed responsibility for the airport assault, Turkish authorities have said most signs point to ISIS, and CNN contributor Michael Weiss, author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," said the nationalities buttress that claim. Read more…
30th June 2016