NEWS
UNC Gives PNM Grande
Citing the proportional representation rule, brought to Parliament as an amendment to the Municipal Corporation Act by the People’s Partnership led by then prime minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar, the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) yesterday declared victory and control of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation. Saying despite the corporation being deadlocked 4-4 after votes were tallied in the local government election on Monday, the PNM maintains it got the popular vote over the UNC in this corporation. PNM Chairman Franklin Khan, at a press conference at Balisier House in Port-of-Spain, said the PNM is claiming “outright victory” in Sangre Grande which would give it control of three boroughs (Arima, Pt Fortin and San Fernando) and five regional corporations to the UNC’s five regional corporations and one borough (Chaguanas). Flanked at the press conference by PNM lawyer Michael Quamina and PNM general secretary Ashton Ford, Khan said he knew of the UNC’s penchant for filing lawsuits and said the ruling party is ready for any legal challenge mounted by the Opposition party. Read more here
Autopsy reveals Jenice beaten to death
Four-year-old Jenice Figaro, who reportedly died after eating a meal of fries, was in fact beaten to death, an autopsy found yesterday. The autopsy, performed by forensic pathologist Dr Eslyn Burris Mc Donald at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, found her death was due to blunt force trauma. When the T&T Guardian contacted Jenice’s father, Robert Figaro, he declined to comment on the results. “Right now I am having a conversation with the police and I cannot speak right now,” he said. Figaro told police he left Jenice last Thursday night in the care of a female relative who, along with her children aged five and eight, lived at his home at Corosal, Whiteland. Read more here
Soccer shocker
A chartered plane carrying a Brazilian football team to the biggest match of its history crashed into a Colombian hillside and broke into pieces, killing 75 people and leaving six survivors, Colombian officials said yesterday. The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by a charter airline with roots in Venezuela, declared an emergency and lost radar contact just before 10 p.m. on Monday because of an electrical failure, aviation authorities said. The aircraft, which had departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was carrying the up-and-coming Chapecoense football team from southern Brazil for today's first leg of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin—the continent's second-most-important championship. Read more here
POLITICS
Division in Tobago PNM
Police had to be called in to quell protest action yesterday by persons who gathered gathered outside the People’s National Movement (PNM) Tobago Council office in Scarborough calling on party seniors to rethink their decision on the candidate for the Scarborough/ Calder Hall electoral district to contest the upcoming Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections. Screams, hoots and jeers could be heard as reporters gathered for the weekly press conference. Close to 20 protestors with placards loudly voiced their disagreement with the party’s candidate Marslyn Jack as they chanted, “we want Angus, we don’t want no Jack”, repeatedly. At last Wednesday’s selection of candidates, Jack a former educator was given the nod over the current THA Councillor and Secretary of Community Development and Culture Dr Denise Tsoi-a-fatt Angus to contest the electoral district. Read more here
Minor parties not giving up
Despite losing in Monday’s Local Government poll, the smaller political parties intend to continue on their own—and they don’t see the outcome as favouring either the PNM or UNC. The views came from the leaders of the Congress of the People (COP), National Solidarity Assembly (NSA) and others regarding Monday’s election result where the PNM won seven corporations, dropping one from its 2013 gain of eight, while the UNC held its six, getting back several seats and they tied in Sangre Grande. COP lost all seats the party contested, receiving an estimated 360 votes. The Elections and Boundaries Commission yesterday stated it could not give final figures as yet. Read more here
Nonsense, says Kamla, as UNC ready for court
“A nonsensical legal interpretation.” That is how Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday described the position presented by PNM chairman Franklin Khan, in respect of the PNM’s claim to victory and control of the Sangre Grande Corporation. But UNC Senator Gerald Ramdeen, responding to this, warned that any manoeuvre or attempt by the PNM to take control of the Sangre Grande Corporation, that was not grounded in law, will be opposed by the UNC. “And if we have to go to court to stop any such attempt we will do so forthwith,” Ramdeen said yesterday. He also stated there was no way the PNM could claim it won the popular vote in Sangre Grande if two recounts were taking place. Read more here
BUSINESS
Uncertainty over OPEC oil deal
Up to this week, chances that OPEC countries would agree to their first cut in output in eight years were looking good. Now, not so much. Saudi Arabia is questioning the informal agreement made in September. And the desert kingdom, which accounts for about a third of OPEC’s output, normally prevails at ministerial meetings. The price of crude was down on Tuesday, reflecting investors’ caution about a final agreement being reached. Still, a deal is not out of the question, and even a remote possibility that it will be backed is an exciting prospect. Spencer Welch, an analyst with IHS energy, casts the event as “potentially the most important OPEC meeting since 1973,” when the cartel imposed a highly effective oil embargo on the West. Read more here
TCL to pay $20m owed to workers
Local producer Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) will settle its remaining debt to workers who won a court case against the company two years ago by giving them $20 million in shares. TCL said in a notice on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange on Monday: “In December 2014 and January 2015, TCL published notices advising that a Memorandum of Agreement was entered into with the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), regarding the order of the Industrial Court on certain trade disputes and all other outstanding items for the period 2012-2014.” Read more here
REGIONAL
Jovenel Moise wins presidential election in Haiti
Jovenel Moïse, of Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale(Haitian Bald Head Party) and the chosen successor of former president Michel Martelly, won the first round of Sunday’s presidential election in Haiti with 595,430 (55.67%) of the votes. Since Moïse won with more than 50 percent of the votes, a runoff election will not be required. However, the result triggered protests and claims of fraud from opponents, especially as Moïse also came first in the aborted October 2015 vote, which was annulled following allegations of fraud. The 48-year-old Moïse is a successful businessman, running a banana export company he sees as a model for rural development. As president, his task will be to revive Haiti’s economy and rebuild that country as it recovers from a devastating earthquake in 2010, as well as Hurricane Matthew. Read more here
Army Boss Declares Soldiers Don't Just Sit Around At Up Park Camp
Outgoing Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Antony Anderson, has moved to dispel a common belief that members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) do very little but sit around at Up Park Camp passing time while wasting taxpayers' money. The army chief, in defending his troops, highlighted that JDF soldiers are always committed to putting themselves in harm's way to protect others - 24 hours a day. Anderson, who it was recently announced will become the nation's first national security adviser, was addressing a meeting at the University of the West Indies in St Andrew last week, during the first in a series of public lectures organised by the Institute of Criminal Justice and Security. As national security adviser, Anderson, a 32-year veteran of the JDF, will be the principal technical adviser to the Government. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
A new cold war: US Marines' wintry war games on Norway-Russia border
An American tank full of US Marines crashes through the silence of the sub-zero pine forest, far above the Arctic Circle, as unidentified drones hover overhead and yellow and green smoke fills the freezing air. The troops' target? A bunker up ahead, manned by Norwegian soldiers. Shots ring out as the Marines advance, crunching through the snow beneath gray winter skies. It's all role-play, of course -- the maneuvers are part of a training exercise, but one jarringly imbued with the new reality along NATO's northernmost border with Russia. Some 300 US Marines are due to be based in Norway on a rotational basis from January, for a year, as part of a package of measures intended to reassure one of NATO's most easterly members. Read more here
CIA chief warns Trump: Scrapping Iran deal 'height of folly'
30th November 2016