NEWS
El Do Blues
Garcia about criminal students, Garcia yesterday got a new report of complaints from staff members of El Dorado East Secondary about gambling, sex and gang activity taking place inside the school compound by students. One member of staff told reporters of some of the incidents that have happened in recent weeks. She said that last week, four gunmen were waiting for a student outside the school who is believed to be selling drugs on the school compound. The staff member said teachers are afraid to go to classrooms because they were being threatened by students. She recalled one incident where students bent the leg of a teacher’s steel chair and when she sat down, she fell, injuring her back. Read more…
Demoralised teachers unable to stem violence
Criminologist Prof Emeritus Ramesh Deosaran says a lot of the current school misery, violence and delinquency could have been prevented if action had been duly taken when the signs and growing evidence were pointed out. He was speaking about the recent acts of violence which have placed the Chaguanas North Secondary School in the spotlight. Deosaran said a school, like the education system itself, had limits in changing a community or a society. “So the extent to which a community is severely fragmented, criminogenic, lawless and largely occupied by slack parenting, to that extent will its school become vulnerable to such perversities. Read more…
Mercy For Malcolm
The case against former executive chairman of State-owned Petrotrin, Malcolm Jones, for breach of fiduciary duty, which had been brought under the People’s Partnership government, collapsed on Monday before it has been heard in court. “This (case) falls on the back of the collapse of the UTT claim (against Ken Julien and others), also brought by the last regime,” Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said yesterday at a press conference at his Port of Spain office. He said the State on Monday withdrew the US$109 million lawsuit against Jones for a breach of fiduciary duty arising out of the failed billion-dollar Gas to Liquid Plant (GTL) project. Read more…
POLITICS
Dillon meets police top brass
Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon yesterday met with top brass of the Police Service (TTPS) led by Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams, at a meeting where both parties voiced great concern about gun-crimes. A Ministry statement said the “cordial and fruitful” meeting took place at the Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain. Dillon sought to get an intimate insight into the operations and needs of the Police Service, and to voice his vision for the overall national security landscape, especially the role of the TTPS in the fight against crime. He vowed to urgently treat with the concerns of the TTPS Executive. Matters discussed included: Leadership and Governance; Management Structure of the TTPS; Crime Prevention, Detection and Reduction initiatives; Training and Development; A Whole-of-Government Approach; and Synergies among all arms of the TTPS. Read more…
UNC defends filing legal action
The United National Congress (UNC) yesterday defended its decision to initiate legal proceedings against former Petrotrin executive president Malcolm Jones for the company’s failed gas to liquid plant. In a press release yesterday evening in response to a press conference held by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi earlier, the party stated its decision was based on “sound, clear and competent legal advice” from a Jamaican Queen’s Counsel and local Senior Counsel. “We were advised that there was a viable case to pursue against Mr Jones for the loss of over $1.2 billion as a result of the failed GTL project. “The loss thereby sustained paralysed Petrotrin and crippled its business development projects, leaving a gaping hole in its balance sheet. Petrotrin was eventually forced to sell the plant as scrap-iron without a single cent returned on its investment,” the release stated. Read more…
Rowley: Govt working to reduce crime quickly
The level of violent crime in this country is “objectionable” and continues to attract the full attention of the Cabinet, says Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley. In a news release yesterday, the Prime Minister stated Government acknowledges the level of criminal conduct in the country was unacceptable and the National Security Council and all other arms of the State, whose duty it is, must work assiduously “to ensure that we return, in the shortest possible time, to good order, peace, safety and security in Trinidad and Tobago”. Read more…
BUSINESS
TTEITI’s Hart joins international board
In January, Victor Hart, chairman of the multi-stakeholder group steering committee of the T&T Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (TTEITI), was nominated by countries of the Americas and Europe to the EITI International board of directors. Following swiftly on this, a delegation from T&T attended the Seventh EITI Global Conference in Peru last week where Hart was elected to office by the 49 member countries and took up his appointment. He is the first Caribbean national to be so honoured. The T&T delegation comprised Hart, Randy Maurice, steering committee member, Sherwin Long, head of the TTEITI secretariat and Vanita Redoy, policy analyst. Hart said he believes his role will have a positive impact on all countries in the Caricom region that embark on EITI implementation, in particular, and the wider membership, in general. He will represent on the board EITI region six–counties from Europe and the Americas comprising Norway, Albania, UK, Germany, USA, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic and T&T. His alternate director on the board is Maria Isabel Ulloa Cruz, Vice-Minister Mines, Colombia. Read more…
Gas production fell to ten-year low in 2015
Trinidad and Tobago’s natural gas production fell to a ten-year record low in 2015, according to production data released by the Ministry of Energy. In 2015, natural gas production fell to its lowest since 2005’s 3,197 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscf/d), to reach 3,835 mmscf/d at the end of 2015, the ministry data released last Friday indicated. In a year-on-year (y-o-y) comparison to 2014, gas production fell approximately six per cent from 4,069 mmscf/d. The decline, which started in 2010 when production had peaked at 4,330 mmscf/d, meant the country regressed to the 2006 level of 3,882 mmscf/d. Read more…
REGIONAL
Shaw Up To Bat - Next Finance Minister Must Hit Ground Running, Say Economists
Audley Shaw, the man anointed by Prime Minister-designate Andrew Holness to take charge of the Ministry of Finance, will have to bat boldly on a sticky wicket after receiving his instrument of office, according to economist Errol Gregory. At the same time, economist Dr AndrÈ Haughton says forces in the global economy are counting on Jamaica to do well this year. "Global investors want us to improve on what we have done so far, over the last couple of years. As long as there is a smooth transition (in government), we should be on the front foot." In the run-up to the February 25 general election, Holness had given a vote of confidence to Shaw as the finance minister in an administration led by him. But Shaw is not expected to be caught napping, opined Gregory, who suggested that Holness, after his inauguration Thursday, might also appoint financial analyst Fayval Williams to be part of the team at the finance ministry. Read more…
Cayman Islands government pressed over corruption probe
Since the first complaint was made back in 2010 about the way the discredited and costly Operation Tempura anti-corruption investigation in the Cayman Islands was conducted by the one time lead investigator, Martin Bridger, and his legal advisor on the enquiry, Martin Polaine, Bridger has not given up trying to get the full story into the public domain. He told CNS that he wants all of the documents relating to this saga made public so the Caymanian people can judge for themselves the rights and wrongs of the controversial probe and the parts played by local and UK government officials.Since Bridger was ousted in 2009 after demands from the government at the time and the probe was shut down, he has raised a number of complaints, as various twists and turns, allegations and counter allegations that have been made about the management of the investigation and various related events. Meanwhile, the governor’s office has spent tens of thousands of dollars of Cayman taxpayers’ money trying to maintain the secrecy surrounding Bridger’s early complaint and the report on why it was dismissed. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
Astronaut Scott Kelly is home
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is back on Earth. Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov landed late Tuesday night in the Kazakhstan desert, NASA and Russian mission control said. Kelly could be seen pumping his fist and giving a thumbs up after being hoisted from the Russian Soyuz spacecraftthat brought the trio back. All three underwent field tests immediately after leaving the spacecraft. Kelly has completed a nearly yearlong mission on the International Space Station, the longest any U.S. astronaut has been in space. The prolific social media user posted a photo of the sunrise on Tuesday -- the last one he watched from space. Spending 340 days in space could affect a person's vision and bones, but Kelly said last week that physically, he feels pretty good. "I could go for another 100 days or 100 years," the astronaut said during his last briefing with reporters from orbit. Read more…
Migrant crisis: Russia and Syria 'weaponising' migration
US Gen Philip Breedlove also said criminals, extremists and fighters were hiding in the flow of migrants. Migrants are continuing to accumulate in Greece, after Macedonia stopped allowing more than a trickle through. New figures suggest last year's total of one million seaborne migrants could be reached this year months beforehand. The International Organization for Migration (IOM)said nearly 129,500 migrants had arrived by sea so far in 2016, plus another 1,545 by land - and 418 had drowned or were missing. The crisis has caused tensions to surge, with the European Commission criticising Macedonia for using tear gas on a crowd of migrants on Monday morning. "The scenes we just saw are not our idea of managing the crisis," said EC spokesman Margaritis Schinas. The European Union is to announce plans to spend hundreds of millions of euros on humanitarian aid, as Greece struggles to cope with the influx. Read more…
2nd March 2016