NEWS
Makandal Daaga dies
National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) Chief Servant Makandal Daaga, 80, has died. Formerly known as Geddes Granger, Daaga fell ill at his Laventille home yesterday and was admitted to Port-of-Spain General Hospital. He passed away at 1.35 pm. Contacted yesterday, Daaga’s wife Liseli said she was still trying to come to terms with her husband’s death. Saying he would have celebrated his 81st birthday on Saturday, Liseli said Daaga was not well for a few years as he suffered from heart disease and was an epileptic. Liseli said the one thing she wanted the country to remember of Daaga, was his immense love for the people. “His entire life was dedicated to the struggle. He always said, ‘my people come first’,” she said. Liseli said Daaga worked tirelessly for the people of this country and the wider Caribbean throughout his life. She said that love was also manifested in simple ways, such as providing help for a child in need. Saying Daaga was “my leader, before my husband”, Liseli said he also had a great love for his community of Laventille and this country’s culture. Read more…
$300,000 bail for CTTRC workers on fraud charge
A businessman from central Trinidad and four employees of the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation (CTTRC) appeared in court yesterday, accused of conspiring to defraud the local government corporation of $149,500. CTTRC CEO Carol Dyal; Barry Samaroo, a chief engineer; Maniram Mohess, a county superintendent; Ian Gokool, a road officer; and Mahase Sookai, a businessman, were not called upon to plead to the fraud charge when they appeared before Magistrate Christine Charles in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court. Accompanied in court by their relatives, the group stood silently in the prisoner enclosure of the court as the charge was being read. Read more…
3 buildings gutted
A restaurant said to be the oldest in San Fernando and two other buildings on Cipero Street, San Fernando were yesterday destroyed by fire. The blaze began around 3 p.m. inside the old Golden Terrace Chinese Restaurant and spread to two business places on either side of the building, leaving millions of dollars in losses. A man and woman who lived in the building which once housed the restaurant suffered minor injuries as they attempted to escape the burning building and were taken to the San Fernando General Hospital. A neighbour who asked to be unnamed said the man was cooking on the upper level of the building when the fire broke out. The neighbour said he saw smoke coming from an area where the occupants would usually prepare meals. Read more…
POLITICS
PM’s relatives: Routine check-up
Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), Orville London, says he has no information on the health of Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley. However, London told Newsday yesterday that if the health of the prime minister is such that it affects the performance of his duties, then there is a responsibility for the nation to be aware of such. “If the situation surrounding his health is merely routine health check-ups, then it is not necessary for any public figure to be giving the nation a running update,” London said. Meanwhile, relatives living in Mason Hall, Tobago say they too have no information at this time on the state of Rowley’s health. One relative expressed that it has to be a routine examination otherwise some information would have been passed if it concerned something more critical. The relative said Rowley, as far as they are aware, is visiting a relative, Judy Brandy Yoho in Los Angeles. Read more…
Garcia: Talk about Rowley disrespectful
Education Minister Anthony Garcia says people are making a big deal about the health of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and it was also disrespectful to the PM. Garcia said so as the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and other Cabinet members remained mum on medical examinations done by Rowley at a clinic in California, USA, yesterday. Garcia said, “I don’t know why people are making such a big deal. There shouldn’t be all this speculation that is rife all over the place.This is disrespectful to the office holder too.” Garcia said he holds firmly to the view that a Cabinet member’s health is his personal business. “If he prefers, he can disclose it to the public,” he added. Read more…
Kamla praises Daaga’s contribution to nation, People’s Partnership
Trinidad and Tobago has lost a national treasure with the death of Makandal Daaga, says Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. In a release yesterday, the former prime minister praised Daaga for his monumental service to nation and his contribution to the rise of the People's Partnership to Government in 2010. Read more…
BUSINESS
Tobago gets fourth quarter allocation
Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Finance and Enterprise Development Secretary Joel Jack has assured that his Division has already received Tobago’s allotment of close to $400 million for the fourth quarter of the financial year. For the last quarter, the THA did not get its full budgetary allocation on time. At last Wednesday’s post Executive Council media briefing, Jack said previously, the country’s overdraft facility was close to its limit, which affected Central Government’s funding options. This situation, he said, has improved. “I’m pleased to announce that we have received our fourth quarter releases from the Ministry of Finance and the funding for the fourth quarter, totalling $386.6 million, to fund activities both for recurrent expenditure and for the development programme expenditure,” Jack stated. The Secretary also gave an update on the island’s budget proposal, saying it was submitted ahead of the June 30 deadline. Read more…
C&W loses subscribers in T&T
Cable & Wireless Communications, (C&W), which operates the Flow brand in T&T, suffered a reduction of video subscribers in this country which it blames on increased competition and a challenging macroeconomic environment. The company, a leading telecommunications operator in the Caribbean and Latin America, in just released first quarter results for 2016/17, said while on the video front 2,000 subscribers were added, this was driven mainly by growth in Panama. There were declines in video subscribers in the Caribbean, particularly in T&T and Barbados. The company said it is “working to mitigate these factors by re-vamping our product offering in these markets”, such as the recent launch of the Flow Sports Premier channel featuring HD content and exclusively to Flow's customers across the region. Read more…
GHL records pre-tax profit of $226 million
Financial services group Guardian Holdings Ltd (GHL) has recorded a pre-tax profit of $226 million for the half year ended June 30, 2016, an increase of $65 million or 40 per cent over the same period in 2015. GHL chairman Arthur Lok Jack has attributed this strong performance to improved investment returns in quarter two, which he noted more than compensated for a reduced result in the Group's insurance activities. Read more…
REGIONAL
Stakeholders discuss current state of education in the Caribbean
When the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) launches its new education and training policy and strategy later in 2016, it will have had the input of some of the Caribbean region’s key stakeholders. The bank has undertaken a consultative process to ensure that the document, which will guide its funding and support for education and training in the region, is aligned to countries’ specific needs. In addition to guiding the bank’s development assistance to its borrowing member countries (BMCs), the strategy and policy will take into account regional and global agendas on education. “As we contemplate a new education development agenda, we should be innovative and bold,” said Deidre Clarendon, division chief, Social Sector Division, CDB, during the opening of the regional consultation on the development of the bank’s new education and training policy and strategy at CDB in Barbados on July 25, 2016. Read more…
Bad Start Hurts Alia - Local Swim Officials Blame 8th-Place Finish On Game-Plan Change
Her quick start was missing in the pool, and so were the words outside of it. It was not meant to end this way for top Jamaican swimmer Alia Atkinson, who ended her fourth Olympic campaign and perhaps her last with a surprising and disappointing eighth-place finish in the 100m breaststroke final inside the Olympic Aquatics Stadium last night. Lynval Lowe, head coach of Swimaz Aquatic and one of Atkinson’s former coaches, told The Gleaner the Olympian jumped off last and sat in the block a little late. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
France's super jihadi and the teenage girl trapped in Syria
Sitting in front of his high-end computer, staring intently at the screen, chunky headphones on and mouse busily clicking away, Omar Omsen looks like a regular office worker. Only the camouflage t-shirt and the tent walls billowing around him offer a hint that this is no ordinary workplace, but the epicenter of jihadi recruitment in Syria. The clip he's working on is not a pop video or newsreel but a piece of radical Islamist propaganda, in praise of the "Charlie Hebdo" attackers who killed 12 people in Paris in January 2015. Read more…
Putin offers Turkey's Erdogan closer ties
9th August 2016