NEWS

CoP defends blasting media: It’s constructive criticism

Police Commissioner Gary Griffith this afternoon stood by earlier remarks criticising media houses for "biased" coverage. He said it was intended as constructive criticism and to raise the standard of reporting in TT. Newsday spoke with Griffith. who said the reports from some media houses showed favouritism towards criminals. "I want the media to see it as constructive criticism. If you see when we did the operation on the Beetham last Thursday, the only people this media house could get to interview were two fellas at the corner that were obviously affiliated or had a sense of loyalty to certain persons of interest. Read more here

Fire guts century-old building in Princes Town

One of the old­est build­ings in Princes Town has been de­stroyed in a fire. Po­lice said Car­los Bar on High Street, caught fire around 3 am on Mon­day. One of the prop­er­ty own­ers Sheri­dan Mo­hammed said he was un­cer­tain what caused the fire. “At this point, we are think­ing it could have been an elec­tri­cal prob­lem,” Mo­hammed said even though there were no pow­er surges or no­tice­able elec­tri­cal mal­func­tion­ing pri­or to the blaze. Read more here

POLITICS

UNC PRO: AG deflecting from his incompetence

UNC PRO Anita Haynes has responded to Attorney General Faris Al Rawi's comments that the Opposition was not supporting certain bills by saying he is "a stranger to the truth." Haynes made the comment in a media release yesterday. “The Attorney General’s recent accusation that the Opposition is not supporting certain bills is a complete fabrication," she said. "The Opposition supported each of the bills mentioned by the Attorney General often after rigorous debate and strengthening of laws to protect citizens’ rights. Once again, Mr Al-Rawi is a stranger to the truth and is engaging in a desperate attempt to try to deflect attention from his incompetence.” Read more here

Stuart probes contracts for gang leaders

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young has con­firmed he has re­ports be­fore him of peo­ple al­leged­ly en­gaged in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty who have been giv­en state con­tracts and in­tends to act on it. Young made the com­ment at a me­dia con­fer­ence at the min­istry’s Port-of-Spain head­quar­ters yes­ter­day, as he re­spond­ed to a ques­tions over a Guardian Me­dia re­port that a top-se­cret Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty doc­u­ment had iden­ti­fied sev­er­al of the men ar­rest­ed dur­ing last week’s an­ti-gang sweep, who are sus­pect­ed gang lead­ers, as hav­ing ben­e­fit­ed from lu­cra­tive gov­ern­ment con­tracts. Ac­cord­ing to the ar­ti­cle, the doc­u­ment traced the men’s af­fil­i­a­tions to com­pa­nies which re­ceived mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar State con­tracts over the past 14 years. The 17-page re­port was com­piled by Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Gary Grif­fith back in 2014 when he served as na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter. Read more here

BUSINESS

RBC MD: Banks must re-evaluate after ‘unprecedented events’

BANKS must re-evaluate themselves after unprecedented events in the industry, said RBCTT managing director Gretchen Camacho-Mohammed. She was speaking last week Tuesday at the formal reopening of the RBC St Augustine branch. "In banking, unprecedented events in the last couple of years have changed the expectations of our industry, among them new technology, new competitors, more stringent regulatory environments and volatile economic conditions. Every country and every bank has been affected, and these changes have been the catalyst for us to re-evaluate what a bank means to its clients and how we can best meet those expectations." Read more here

REGIONAL

Insurance Hazard - Study Finds Most Motorists Driving Without Coverage

More than half the vehicles in Jamaica are uninsured, a statistic that is of huge concern to road-safety officials and one which the police consider “frightening”. A study conducted by the Jamaica National Group, based on data culled from Tax Administration Jamaica and the Insurance Association of Jamaica (IAJ), shows that up to 57 per cent of vehicles were not covered by an insurer in 2016. Of a gross figure of 609,086 vehicles registered, only 259,269 were insured. But other data which the researchers gleaned from TAJ and IAJ are in conflict with those statistics, indicating a slightly lower variation. That analysis shows that of 537,449 motor cars, motorcycles, tractors, trailers and trucks, 52 per cent had no insurance policies. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Bernie Sanders launches second presidential campaign

After months of deliberation, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Tuesday that he is running for president again in 2020. It will be Sanders' second consecutive bid for the Democratic nomination after losing to Hillary Clinton in 2016. "What I promise to do is, as I go around the country, is to take the values that all of us in Vermont are proud of -- our belief in justice, in community, in grassroots politics and town meetings -- that's what I'm going to carry all over this country," Sanders said in his announcement on Vermont Public Radio Tuesday morning. Read more here

Pulwama attack: Pakistan warns India against military action

Pakistan has warned it will retaliate if India takes military action against it after a militant attack on Indian forces in Indian-administered Kashmir. Prime Minister Imran Khan went on television to call on India to provide evidence to support its claims that Pakistan was involved. More than 40 members of India's security forces died in Thursday's suicide bombing on their convoy. Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad said it was behind it. The attack has raised tensions between India and Pakistan, which have fought two wars and a limited conflict in the region and are both nuclear powers. Read more here

19th February 2019

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