NEWS
Evil Dad In Murder/Suicide
Her tender throat slit by her own father and left for dead, a three-year-old girl is believed to have spent hours in the backseat of a car at Penal, bleeding and lying next to the cold body of her 26-year-old mother, who was fatally stabbed by the man. Little Artie Ramhkelawan, who if she survives, turns three on Thursday, was up to last night warded in serious but stable condition at San Fernando General Hospital. Her mother Aarika Bhim, 26, of Laltoo Trace, Penal, did not survive the attack which occurred sometime between Sunday night and yesterday morning. Read more...
Worrying trend in human trafficking
Seventh Day Adventist pastor Clive Dottin says over the past five years there has been an upswing in human trafficking in T&T but as a society he says we are always in denial hence the apparent inaction to the growing problem. According to Dottin the stark reality is that as long as there is a drug trade which is not being properly managed, you will have human trafficking. Speaking recently to the GML Enterprise team, Dottin said: “It starts off with using the women as couriers and sometimes the women are aware that where they will end up after dropping the drugs will be prostitution because they have to live.” Read more...
Risk assessment needed for locals in ISIS
This is according to Simon Hawkins, chief superintendent of the Joint Protective Services Command in the United Kingdom. Hawkins said it was still being debated whether individuals who travelled aboard should be allowed to return to the UK without any intervention of law enforcement officers. He was speaking to the Express during the opening of the first international law enforcement seminar in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday. Also speaking were Wayne Lang, director of the Criminal Intelligence Service New Brunswick, Canada. The seminar hosted by the International Police Association (IPA) and Trinidad and Tobago will run for four days at Naparima College, San Fernando. Hawkins is the facilitator representing the UK. Read more...
POLITICS
Group welcomes gender affairs at OPM
A civil society lobby group has welcomed the decision to shift ministerial responsibility for children’s matters and gender affairs to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) in the wake of the removal of a stand-alone ministry. In a media release, the group known as the Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD) said it welcomed the move of matters relating to the Children’s Authority; child development; children’s homes; special needs children; community residences; orphanages and gender affairs to the OPM. Read more...
TT now more at risk than in 1990—PM
After what was witnessed in France last Friday, those in T&T who experienced the 1990 failed coup attempt “must know that we are not just vulnerable but we are more vulnerable now than in 1990,” Prime Minister Keith Rowley warned yesterday. “We have to be vigilant in every single area. We have to be always vigilant and cognisant that we are exposed as everybody else in the world to this particular threat,” Rowley said. He assured that the question of returning T&T-born foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) was being addressed. Read more...
T&T more vulnerable to ISIS
Trinidad and Tobago is now more vulnerable to the threat of ISIS terrorism than it was to the threat of terrorism in 1990, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday. And no one knows that more than the Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon, the Prime Minister added in an apparent contradiction to statements attributed to Dillon. The Prime Minister was speaking to the media following the launch of the Committee to conduct a review of the levels of Health Care delivery at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair. Read more...
BUSINESS
Liberty Global in buyout of Cable and Wireless
European cable and wireless operator, Liberty Global, yesterday agreed to buy out Cable and Wireless for 87 pence per share. Cable and Wireless Chief Executive Phill Bentley, said Cable and Wireless was approached directly by Liberty Global with the offer which carried a 50 percent premium on the prevailing share price before the two sides commenced talks and represented a valuation of 12 times profit. “Which is a good price by any standard, and values the company at US$8 billion,” he said in a conference call with journalists in the Caribbean. Bentley said Liberty Global is the largest international cable television company, and a world class global player with great content and great business in Europe and ambitions to expand in the Caribbean and Latin America. He added that Liberty Global does not operate in any markets in which Cable and Wireless operates, although it does have business in Puerto Rico and Chile. Read more...
Government committed to fixing procurement legislation
Housing Minister Marlene McDonald says government is not backing down from its decision to amend the Procurement Bill brought to Parliament by the former Kamla Persad-Bissessar government because it was flawed. Further, she said the Act was not fully proclaimed. Speaking at the T&T Contractors Association (TTCA) Contractor of the Year Awards and Dinner held at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre on Lady Young Road in St Ann’s, Port-of-Spain, on Saturday, she said while the Keith Rowley-led administration was aware of concerns raised by the fraternity on learning of Cabinet’s intent to amend the law, reforms were absolutely necessary. Read more...
REGIONAL
St Kitts-Nevis parliament to debate term limits legislation
Tuesday’s sitting of the National Assembly in St Kitts and Nevis will debate legislation introduced by the government to impose a limit of two five-year terms for the office of the prime minister. In its campaign that led up to its victory at the February 16 general elections, the Team Unity coalition promised to introduce such term limits. Vincent Byron, attorney general and minister responsible for justice and legal affairs, elections and communications, will seek leave to introduce and have read a first time the Tenure of Office of Prime Minister Bill, 2015. Read more...
Dalley Cleans House - JMA Pleased As New Minister Dumps Health Officials
The private sector is applauding the "swift" action taken by newly appointed Health Minister Horace Dalley in holding hospital managers accountable for the tragic circumstances that led to the deaths of 19 premature babies. One week on the job and already Dalley has asked the boards of the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) to step down. "As a matter of accountability, I have asked the boards of the University Hospital of the West Indies and the Western Regional Health Authority to resign and they have. The Cornwall Regional Hospital board will also be asked to resign," Dalley told The Gleaneryesterday. Read more...
INTERNATIONAL
Paris attacks investigation: The latest developments for Tuesday
Shock waves from the Paris terrorist attacks that killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more continue to reverberate around the globe. French President Francois Hollande says his country "is at war" after three teams of gun-wielding ISIS suicide bombers hit six locations around Paris on Friday night, including a rock concert, a sports stadium and bustling restaurants. As investigators begin to piece together the details of the terrorist operation and hunt for one key suspect who's on the run, the French military is pounding ISIS targets in Syria with airstrikes. Read more...
Russia plane crash: 'Terror act' downed A321 over Egypt's Sinai
17th November 2015