NEWS

Griffith: No one told me about court order

Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith says his office could not act on the court’s order to reclassify the leave of former Cpl Ashram Pariagsingh, as neither he, his office nor the legal unit of the Police Service were informed of the judge’s direction. In a statement on Tuesday – the second one on the issue – Griffith said arms of the State external to the police did not forward the court’s order until last Friday, when the matter was scheduled for hearing on Monday. Read more here

HDC tenants say gangster back in apartment complex

Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) ten­ants at Clifton Tow­ers in Port-of-Spain are again fear­ing for their safe­ty as they claim some­one known to be in­volved in gang ac­tiv­i­ties is cur­rent­ly oc­cu­py­ing one of the apart­ments. In fact, they de­scribed the in­di­vid­ual as a “gang­ster boss.” Guardian Me­dia was al­so told that the ten­ant in ques­tion lives in an apart­ment on the ninth floor of one of the tow­ers. One ten­ant who wished not to be iden­ti­fied said drug ad­dicts al­so now fre­quent the com­pound as a re­sult of the gang­ster’s pres­ence and can be a ma­jor se­cu­ri­ty risk to them and their chil­dren. “They are all over the com­pound, es­pe­cial­ly in the el­e­va­tor bay, where ten­ants and their chil­dren have to pass. They al­ways do­ing their drugs, smok­ing weed…it has be­come un­bear­able,” the ten­ant said. Read more here

POLITICS

Ministry moves to stop illegal dumping in Tunapuna

The Health Ministry has served a litter removal order under the Litter Act on the contractor hired by the St Augustine Private Hospital to dispose of its medical waste. Residents reported on Monday that the private hospital's waste had been illegally dumped in an empty lot in Palm Drive, St John's Road, Tunapuna. Staff from the County Medical Officer of Health for St George East investigated and said while they did find illegally dumped waste, no biohazardous waste was found. Read more here

Young offers Venezuelans chance to work legally

Venezue­lans flee­ing the cri­sis in their home­land will be giv­en an amnesty to reg­is­ter legal­ly and pos­si­bly work for one year in T&T with­out any in­volve­ment from the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC). So said Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young as he dis­missed con­cerns of vote-rig­ging raised by Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day. Speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence at the Moru­ga Po­lice Sta­tion, Young said the reg­is­tra­tion process will be­gin soon to doc­u­ment and reg­is­ter all Venezue­lan na­tion­als here, once it re­ceives clear­ance from Cab­i­net. Read more here

BUSINESS

Suspected terrorism financing increasing

The Financial Intelligence Unit of T&T (FIUTT) received a record-high number of suspicious transaction and suspicious activity reports (STRs/SARs) last year, FIU Director Susan François said in a report that was made public last week. She also flagged an alarming 49 per cent year-on-year increase in suspected financing of terrorism. Read more here

REGIONAL

18 Hours Of TERROR - Gunmen Slaughter Eight Persons In Separate Incidents In Westmoreland

Terror reigned in the parish of Westmoreland between midday Monday and yesterday morning as eight persons were killed by bloodthirsty gunmen in a murderous rampage that spanned several communities. “Di Devil tek wi parish from wi. Life nuh worth nutten again,” wailed Teneisha Holness, whose 19-year-old son Renaldo Campbell was among the victims. “Mi just go leave di matter inna God hand because Him promise fi be mi refuge inna time of trouble.” While the carnage started on Cooke Street in Savanna-la-Mar, shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Monday, when gunmen invaded a football field and killed 18-year-old Eric Smith, it took its most gruesome twist shortly after 11 p.m., when men armed with rifles opened fire on patrons at a nightclub in Williamsfield, killing three persons and injuring four others. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

India Pakistan: Kashmir fighting sees Indian aircraft downed

Pakistan says it has shot down two Indian military jets and captured two pilots in a major escalation between the nuclear powers over Kashmir. India says it lost one MiG21 fighter and a pilot was missing in action. Pakistani PM Imran Khan said the two sides could not afford a miscalculation with the weapons they had. India and Pakistan - both nuclear-armed states - claim all of Kashmir, but control only parts of it. They have fought three wars since independence from Britain and partition in 1947. All but one were over Kashmir. Read more here

Michael Cohen will testify that Trump knew Roger Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC email dump

Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen is prepared to testify that Trump was aware of longtime adviser Roger Stone's efforts to reach out to WikiLeaks in advance of its release of damaging information about Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, according to a copy of his public testimony submitted to Congress and obtained by CNN. In a stunning 20-page statement provided Tuesday night to lawmakers, Cohen details a wide range of allegations against Trump -- from making racist comments about African-Americans to participating during his presidency in an illegal hush-money scheme to keep his alleged extramarital affairs quiet -- as well as suggesting Trump faked a medical condition to get out of serving in the Vietnam War. Read more here

27th February 2019

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