NEWS
1 dead, 5 hurt
One man is dead and five others remain warded at hospital __ one in critical condition __ after a Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) bus careened off a road and plunged 80 feet down a precipice early yesterday morning in L’anse Fourmi, Tobago. The accident occurred shortly after 5 am in an area commonly known as ‘Bennet Flat’. Dead is Roosevelt Kerr, popularly known as ‘Bassy’ aged 50, who worked in the Division of Community Development and Culture in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA). The driver and four other passengers are hospitalized nursing severe injuries at Scarborough General Hospital. One of the passengers, Patricia Corbin, 50, is said to be in a critical condition. Villagers who heard the crash when the bus landed on its side at the foot of the precipice were the first to respond and mount a rescue operation. The bus was lodged in a bamboo patch. Assistant Divisional Fire Officer David Thomas estimated the precipice to be about 80 feet deep. A clear path of destruction left by the bus is visible from the roadway. Read more here
Cholera now a major threat
With the death toll from Hurricane Matthew rising in Haiti to 1,000 up to yesterday, cholera spreading rapidly and the dead being buried in mass graves, 22-year old Trinidadian Hadassah Hector leaves bravely today for the ravaged country to assist in relief efforts. Hector, a full-time volunteer with the NGO Is There Not A Cause (ITNAC) since age 13, leaves T&T with another member, Debra Dowlat, on behalf of the organisation. They will be followed later on by five others. Hector and Dowlat will spend two weeks in Haiti, focussing on districts in the hardest hit southwest region like Les Cayes and Leoganne, where cholera has been spreading due to floodwaters left in the wake of Matthew. They will carry small amounts of supplies with them and enough funds to buy medicine in Port-au-Prince to administer to those needing it. Read more here
Car dealer, wife together again
The wife-beating charge against millionaire car and real estate dealer Sheron Sukhdeo was dropped yesterday after the alleged victim, Rachael Sukhdeo, came to court and said she no longer wanted to pursue the case. Sheron, 28, first appeared in court in February before Chaguanas Magistrate Jo-Anne Connor charged with committing the act of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Rachael at their Orchard Gardens, Chaguanas, home. The charges were laid after Rachael posted photos of her alleged injuries on social media. Read more here
POLITICS
MP foresees thousands of State job losses
Thousands of workers can expect to lose their jobs at Petrotrin, WASA and CEPEP, based on big cuts in the national Budget’s allocations to these State firms, predicted Couva South MP Rudy Indarsingh in yesterday’s Budget debate in the Lower House. He said Petrotrin has been told to cut its spending by $500 million over the next four years or boost profitability. “The time is coming when the Government will administer the final rites to the OWTU and dismiss all 5,000 workers at Petrotrin,” he said. “Job losses are in the Budget. Thousands of workers are being retrenched in this country.” He was wary of private sector involvement at Lake Asphalt. Indarsingh said that in its Budget allocation, WASA will lose $452 million, resulting in thousands of workers likely to be sent home. Saying CEPEP has had a cut of $106 million, he asked, “How many contractors are to be sent home? Read more here
AG in budget debate: Six nationals to be deemed terrorists
Government is finalising paperwork to designate six T&T nationals and two foreigners as terrorists and is also examining the position with nine other people who are to return home, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has said. He revealed the information about terrorist designation for the various people — a potential total of 15 — in Parliament yesterday. Speaking during the 2017 budget debate, Al-Rawi said in the last year T&T had applied the “terrorist” designation, in keeping with international obligations, to 80 entities and was “on the cusp of designating a further 253. “We are also in the process of drawing up the final papers to designate six nationals and two foreigners as terrorists and we are examining the position with nine locals who are bound to return to our shores,” he said. Read more here
BUSINESS
NGC to institute STOW
The National Gas Company (NGC), is expected to institute mandatory STOW certification for all of its service providers from January 1, 2017. Safe TO Work (STOW) is a certification programme for contractors’ Health Safety and Environment management systems. The announcement was made by NGC president, Mark Loquan, during a signing ceremony of the STOW Charter with the Energy Chamber at NGC’s corporate offices recently. In a media statement, the Chamber noted that the signing demonstrated the company’s re-commitment to the original objectives of STOW with NGC joining 25 major operating companies in the oil and gas sector which had signed the Charter and agreed to adopt the STOW-TT HSE requirements as a “mandatory prerequisite for service providers competing for business within Trinidad and Tobago.” “Additionally, Mr Loquan identified January 1, 2017 as the cut-off date after which STOW Certification will become mandatory for all of NGC’s service providers,” the Chamber noted. Read more here
Companies will have to account
Companies that are not up to date in the Companies Registry will be struck off and stand to lose their assets if they cannot properly account to the courts under a law Government is bringing soon to “follow the money” sustaining crime, Attorney General Faris Al Rawi said yesterday. He detailed measures to “follow the money” of crime, which involves targetting white collar crime in business and land acquisitions, in his contribution to the 2017 Budget debate in Parliament. “We’re going behind the money...rather than putting out a dragnet for two joints. The engine behind crime isn’t being attended to. It’s not just local, it has a foreign context to it,” he said. Read more here
WIRSPA calls for more government action to protect rum industry
The head of the West Indies Rum and Spirits Producers Association (WIRSPA) is calling on Caribbean governments to do more to protect the product, in the face of increasing competition from heavily subsidised spirits on the international market. “The biggest challenge at the moment continues to be an uneven playing field, in that other spirits, not just rum, benefit from subsidies of one kind or another, and the CARIFORUM rum industry does not,” said Dr Frank Ward, following the launch of a special commemorative XO cask strength limited edition by Mount Gay Distilleries, in honour of the island’s 50th anniversary of independence. He said the Caribbean has been placed at a disadvantage after subsidies were granted to rum companies in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands under the Rum Cover Over programme, which provides budgetary support to territorial governments. Ward said the region has been forced to make painful adjustments to remain afloat, while at the same time reducing the impact on the local workforce. Read more here
REGIONAL
Fiery Screams - Kids Tied Up, Shot; 14-Y-O Paralysed
Sombre was the general mood yesterday at 7 March Pen Road in Spanish Town, St Catherine, in the Africa Settlement area, where five persons, including three children were shot, killed and their homes torched early last Sunday morning. It would have been five dead children instead of three, if a 14-year-old girl who was shot 10 times had succumbed to injuries, and a five-year-old girl, who some persons say was deliberately spared by the gangsters had not been. The gunmen were reportedly wearing police vests, masks and sporting high-powered rifles. Two of the children killed, according to a family member who requested that his name not be used in this story, were murdered execution style. He told The Gleanerthat the two children aged nine and 14 years were tied up by the hoodlums and then shot. He said the little girl who was spared from the attack ran and hid until the smoke cleared. Everyone thought she was among the rubble, dead, but she survived. Read more here
Exigency order to take effect in Bahamas on Tuesday
Prime Minister Perry Christie said at a press conference on Sunday evening that an exigency order will take effect in The Bahamas on Tuesday in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. Christie pointed out that Hurricane Joaquin, which hit parts of The Bahamas in 2015, was estimated to cause $100 million in damage. He said the damage caused by Matthew is likely much greater. “Enormous damage has been inflicted on thousands of Bahamians who were not so affected in such numbers by Hurricane Joaquin,” said Christie at the National Emergency Management Agency headquarters. He said the exigency orders will cover building materials, furniture and vehicles. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Syria: Putin cancels France trip after Hollande's war crimes comments
Russian President Vladimir Putin has canceled a planned visit to France next week, a Kremlin source said Tuesday, in an apparent snub to French President Francois Hollande, who suggested Moscow was guilty of war crimes in Syria. The Kremlin source, which spoke to Russian state-run news agency Tass, did not explicitly say why Putin had pulled out of the trip, but tensions have been rumbling between the two leaders since the weekend when Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution aimed at ending Syrian regime airstrikes on Aleppo and allowing humanitarian aid into the city. France and Spain had put forward the resolution. Read more here\
Samsung permanently stops Galaxy Note 7 production
11th October 2016