NEWS
UN: TT broke international law
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says this country has broken international refugee law. In a release yesterday, the Geneva-based UNHCR, said that it “deeply regrets the deportation” of 82 Venezuelan nationals on Saturday. The group, which comprised 53 men and 29 women, included registered asylum-seekers and individuals who had declared an intention to apply for refugee status, making their return to Venezuela a breach of international refugee law, the agency said. The detainees, held at the Immigration Detention Centre, were deported despite the UNHCR’s request for access to the individuals concerned and written interventions, it added. Read more here
Mom, children terrorised in Mayaro home invasion
A mother and her three children were held under siege on Sunday in their Mayaro home by a gang of thieves. The criminals cleaned out the house of valuables, packed the family’s car with appliances, household items, jewellery, clothing and shoes, and escaped. The 33 year old woman, a primary school teacher, and her children aged 16, 14 and eight were at their home at Maloney East, Grand Lagoon. Around 8.30 p.m. five men wearing masks – four with firearms – stormed the house and announced a hold up. Read more here
POLITICS
ZERO, ZERO, ZERO
This is the offer of salary “increases” made by Government through its Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) to public servants. Incensed by this offer, president of the Public Services Association (PSA) Watson Duke yesterday declared “war” and promised to lead street demonstrations in response, very early in May. Speaking at a press conference outside the PSA’s head office in Port of Spain, Duke said that late last week, the PSA received a written offer from the CPO for 2014, 2015 and 2016. Read more here
Rowley: Couva Hospital coming on stream soon
If no suitable operator is found for the Couva Hospital by the end of this month, it will be incorporated into T&T’s national health care system as the country’s first paying health care institution, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley told members of the T&T Diaspora yesterday. Addressing nationals on his last day in London following the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, Rowley said T&T was embarking on a new thrust in health tourism. Read more here
Venezuelan asylum seekers beg Govt: Have a Heart
Venezuelan nationals who came to Trinidad for help and who hold asylum certificates are begging the Trinidad and Tobago authorities to have a heart and not inflict further suffering on them. Eighty-two Venezuelans, comprising 53 men and 29 women, were taken from the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) last Saturday and placed on a Venezuelan military aircraft which took them back to the very place from which they had fled. Read more here
BUSINESS
Le Hunte on problems at public utilities: Blame bureaucracy
Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte yesterday said that bureaucracy is the major obstacle to fixing problems at public utilities in T&T and admitted that he finds it a “little bit frustrating” that he is not able to deliver a better level of service. “That has been my major challenge,” he said when he spoke at Breakfast Morning hosted by the National Association of Administrative Professionals (NAAP) at the Cascadia Hotel, St Anns, for Administrative Professionals Week which is being observed from April 22 – 28. Read more here
Local govt reform should ease funding woes
There should be little talk about a lack of funding to municipal corporations once Local Government reform gets underway, a Joint Select Committee (JSC) of Parliament was told yesterday. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government, Destra Bascombe, said yesterday while there remained many challanges in terms of the readiness of the corporations to succesfully accept reform, the proper flow of funding should eliminate some challenges now facing corporations as they try to develop their regions. Read more here
REGIONAL
UK To Make It Right - British Gov't Offers Windrush Migrants Citizenship
Inundated by a flood of harsh criticisms and public outrage over its handling of the Windrush Generation saga, the Theresa May-led Conservative Party Government yesterday moved beyond apology and compensation and pledged to grant citizenship to Caribbean migrants who helped to rebuild post-war Britain. Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who has faced the brunt of criticisms from opposition lawmakers in the British Parliament on the issue, yesterday told her colleagues that she recognised the "harrowing" experiences that the Windrush migrants had undergone, even as she committed to righting the wrongs that had occurred. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Kim Jong-un's 'bitter sorrow' as bus crash kills Chinese tourists
Suspect in Toronto van carnage due in court
Canadian investigators are piecing together information about the man accused of driving a van into multiple pedestrians at a busy Toronto intersection Monday, killing 10 and injuring 15. Witnesses described the vehicle plowing into people on the sidewalk and driving in the wrong direction down the street in what police say appears to have been a deliberate act. Read more here
24th April 2018