NEWS
Doctors SCARED
Doctors at the Port-of- Spain General Hospital yesterday expressed concern for their safety after a young, female intern was held-up at gunpoint on Sunday night at the hospital and robbed after the assailant herded the intern past four security posts which were all empty, before relieving her of three hundred dollars. So concerned are they for their safety that doctors are demanding a beef-up of security systems at the city hospital including having a mobile police unit on the compound and a change in the company that provides security guards to serve the facility. If their demands are not met, the doctors say they will turn away all patients seeking medical care for non-essential ailments from tomorrow. Doctors said that for far too long, they have been assaulted - both physically and emotionally - by patients, homeless persons who wander into the hospital and there have been robberies and even rapes at the institution. Members of the North West Doctors Association (NWDA), a staff association, formed to tend to the needs of doctors in the North West Regional Health Authority said that doctors decided to make a stand after an armed robbery on Sunday night involving a medical intern. Read more here
School fire linked to seized cellphone
Classes at the Cunupia Secondary School are set to resume by Wednesday. This is after the principal's office was destroyed by fire on Saturday. According to reports, a Form Four student and a gang of his friends broke into the school on Saturday afternoon and set fire to the principal's office and administrative offices. Fire officers from the Chaguanas Fire Station were able to contain the blaze to that wing of the school. The attack is believed to have been carried out as an act of retaliation after school officials seized the boy's cell phone last Friday. Read more here
Dottin tells of miraculous let-off from criminals
Pastor Clive Dottin disclosed yesterday he was abducted by a bandit in May this year. Dottin, 67, who was sworn in as a temporary Independent senator, shared his experience as he contributed to the budget debate at the Senate sitting. He said a miracle took place in his encounter with the criminals. “I am praying for a transformed society by the power of God, you know I was abducted on May 19...and I'll tell you what happened. I have no ill feeling towards the guy. “He and his group ordered me to go to the ATM machine and what happened was that I went to the machine, I put my card inside there and it got stuck, and the security guard at Centre of Excellence said, ‘You know something, the machine spoil, the pastor spoil the machine,' and when I turned around you know that card came right back inside my pocket. If somebody else tell me that I wouldn't believe it but God is an awesome God, let's trust God and let's build the society together,” he said. Read more here
POLITICS
Ramdeen: Investigate Imbert’s wife’s company
Opposition Senator Gerald Ramdeen is calling on Housing Minister Randall Mitchell to investigate how a company without the required experience, linked to Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s wife, was awarded a $75 million contract for project management under the previous PNM administration, without the project being sent out to tender. Speaking to the budget debate yesterday in the Senate, Ramdeen said that the company, Bolt Trinidad Limited, was incorporated in 2003 and was awarded the contract for the Mora Heights/Rio Claro project two years later. “I want the minister of housing as part of the audit that is going on at the HDC (Housing Development Corporation) right now, to please investigate this matter,” he said. Read more here
Govt to review Data Protection Act
Amidst concerns that the Data Protection Act will be the death knell of investigative journalism, Government has initiated a review of the act through public consultation. Parts of the act, which was assented to in 2011, have sparked public outcry from executives of the Media Association of T&T who said it would affect the ability of the media to function effectively as the fourth estate. A statement issued by the Ministry of Public Administration and Communications yesterday said it has started stakeholder consultation and a review to improve and clarify the act. Once the review is done and consultations are complete, Government said, it would make the necessary amendments and return to the Parliament in the shortest possible timeframe. Read more here
Anil resurfaces...to defend programme
Former minister of sport Anil Roberts came out of a 27-month stint out of the limelight last night to defend the defunct LifeSport programme, at the United National Congress (UNC) Monday Night Forum in Diego Martin. Roberts's appearance on a public stage coincided with the High Court's determination yesterday to quash the LifeSport audit report into the multi-million dollar programme. He blasted the media for wrongfully pegging his whereabouts, saying he is not in St Lucia, not in South Africa, not in the United States but has always been in Diego Martin. Read more here
BUSINESS
IOCL workers: Employer has money
Striking workers say that its employer, Inland Offshore Contractors Ltd (IOCL) is not under any financial strain, so its stated inability to pay workers is an outright lie. Saying they were out “in full force”, last week Friday, workers assured they are prepared to go the full 90 days if their issues are not resolved. IOCL stated last Friday that the Industrial Court would have to resolve the dispute between itself and employees because the company is unable to pay workers their requested wage increases. “IOCL cannot afford such an increase or anything close to that,” a company press release said. “Strike action is an option that is available to the union, once the negotiations have broken down at the Ministry of Labour and can last for up to 90 days.” After the 90 days, the dispute would have to be settled in the Industrial Court. Read more here
T&T truck drivers in line for 35,000 Canadian jobs
Canadian company Hire Pro Drivers (HPD) has identified 35,000 long-haul trucking vacancies in Canada that could be filled by TT nationals and there is also the “strong possibility” of workers getting permanent residence, Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste- Primussaid yesterday. Baptiste-Primus’ disclosure came in yesterday’s 2017 Budget debate in the Senate. It may have been a ray of light on a darkening job market where she said 1,848 persons have lost jobs T&T to date. But Guardian checks revealed that HPD, which did similar employment placement drives in Jamaica in 2012-13, has been the subject of articles in Canadian and Jamaican media regarding alleged problems with its endeavours. Read more here
Senators query Sandals benefit to Tobago
Will Sandals resort be importing their food to Tobago? Independent Senator Jennifer Raffoul raised this question yesterday in her contribution to the budget debate at the Senate sitting. Read more here
REGIONAL
At least 800,000 Haitians in dire need of immediate assistance, says UN
An assessment conducted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), together with the Haitian government and its National Coordination for Food Security (CNSA), has determined that, in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, some 1.4 million people are in need of food assistance, 800,000 of whom are in a dire situation. The emergency survey was conducted one week after the Category 4 storm, which devastated supplies and crops across the island. Fifty percent of livestock was lost and agriculture has been virtually wiped out in the Department of Grande-Anse, a department in the southwest. Along the southern coast, fishing has been rendered impossible, as flooding has washed away nets, traps, boats, and engines. Without fishing income, families have no money to buy food. Moreover, in the Department of Sud, just south of Grande-Anse, subsistence crops are gone. Ninety percent of the forest and fruit trees in the department were severely damaged, and the remaining ten percent are unlikely to be productive in the coming season. Read more here
'God's With Me' - Powell Walks As Not-Guilty Verdict Ordered In X6 Trial
Jamaica's Chief Prosecutor Paula Llewellyn yesterday confirmed that the main eyewitness in the so-called X6 murder trial, taxi driver Wayne Wright, gave testimony that was "clearly different" from the account he gave police investigators, but said she would not speculate on what influenced his action. Speaking to reporters moments after the dramatic collapse of the trial, which has garnered high public interest, Llewellyn described Wright's testimony in the Home Circuit Court last week as sad and unfortunate, and suggested that he does some soul-searching. "I will not speculate on why Mr Wright gave this evidence, which was clearly different from what was in his statement. All I will say is that it is very, very unfortunate, it was very sad and I can only hope that one of these days he will introspect and perhaps introspect for the better," she said. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Third runway at Heathrow cleared for takeoff by ministers
Battle for Mosul: How ISIS is fighting to keep its Iraqi stronghold
Just over a week into the battle for Mosul, and the vast coalition seeking to oust ISIS from Iraq's second city is making swifter than expected progress. But for all its gains -- 78 villages liberated, and nearly 800 ISIS fighters killed as of Monday morning -- the Iraqi coalition is encountering fierce resistance from ISIS, in what is anticipated to be the terror group's last stand in the country. Massively outnumbered by the advancing coalition -- a 90,000-strong force of Iraqi government troops, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and irregular militia soldiers -- ISIS relies on asymmetric warfare tactics to inflict damage on its opponents, and terrorize long-suffering civilian populations. Here's how the terror group is fighting to maintain its two-year grip on the city. Read more here
25th October 2016