NEWS
WASA manager gunned down
Police and grieving relatives were yesterday baffled as to the reason behind Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) senior manager Derek Hooker’s murder, with relatives saying the 54-year-old man, “lived for the Church”. Hooker was fatally shot outside his Diego Martin home on Monday night. His wife Beverly was inconsolable yesterday outside the Forensic Science Centre (FSC) in St James. “He was a saint. Tonight I have no saint to go home to,” Mrs Hooker cried. “He worked practically 24 hours a day, either for WASA or for his church. He even used to pray for water. I remember one evening, I asked, ‘you have to pray for water and all?’ He just smiled and said, ‘well the people need water’. He devoted his life to the church, his work and to people,” she added. Police reported that on Monday, Hooker was outside his home in Water Wheel Road, Diego Martin in the presence of one of his sons when at about 6.30 pm, a gunman approached and shot Hooker twice in the head before running off. Read more…
Tree falls on car in Valsayn
A 31-year-old Tacarigua woman escaped serious injury when a tree fell on her car near Valsayn, while she was on her way to work around 6 am yesterday. The mishap occurred near Valpark Shopping Plaza as the woman drove along the westbound lane of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway. The tree was said to have fallen as a result of the gusty winds which began occurring from as early as 4 am yesterday. Although she suffered minor “aches and pains,” relatives confirmed the woman was traumatised by the unfortunate incident. Read more…
Thief drives off with boy, 3
A three-year-old boy is said to be traumatised after riding in a vehicle which was stolen from his mother at their home in Tacarigua, yesterday evening. Although he did not appear to be injured, the boy, identified as Kaidan Andrews, was last night said to be on his way to the Port of Spain General Hospital to be medically examined to ensure he was not harmed in the ordeal. According to police reports, at about 5 p.m. yesterday, the child’s mother, Kersha Andrews, had stopped her silver Hyundai Tucson in front of her home, along Orange Grove Road, Tacarigua, to open the gate to her driveway. Read more…
POLITICS
Minister wants to beef up tourism
Finance Minister Colm Imbert has identified the country’s beaches, cruise industry, airlift, and its zoo as the areas of development in the Tourism Industry to the tune of $48.8 million. The 2016 National Budget under the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) stated the aim was to attract and maintain visitor traffic. However, in order to do so, increased visibility of the country’s tourism products through marketing is essential. Therefore, the core focus of Tourism would be on Service Delivery and Industry Development, Product Development, Safety and Security and Institutional Strengthening. To this end, local beaches are expected to be developed to meet international standards in order to enhance visitor experience. Read more…
Govt looks to woo Chinese bankers
Government is moving very aggressively to operationalise its International Financial Centre with the hope of major Chinese banks establishing its headquarters in T&T, says Finance Minister Colm Imbert. He was speaking at yesterday’s annual post-Budget discussion hosted by the T&T Chamber of Commerce. “We will be making overtures to these Chinese banks to set up their regional headquarters here as there is tremendous opportunity,” Imbert said. And in the midst of painting a gloomy picture of T&T’s economy during his 2015/2016 Budget presentation, Imbert said his Government would move full speed ahead with the rapid rail project, once the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) gave the nod. Read more…
Govt to slash budget expenditure on baby grant, CAL, lawers' fees
Government has slashed the subsidy to State carrier Caribbean Airlines in half—from $200 million in 2015 to $92.1 million in 2016. This is according to the Draft Estimates and Details of Estimates of Recurrent Expenditure for the Financial Year 2016. This document was tabled in the House of Representatives on Monday by the Finance Minister as part of the 2016 Budget documents. As Government seeks to curtail expenditure in light of falling revenues, a number of reductions have been made in areas of expenditure as revealed in the document. In delivering the budget presentation, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said on Monday: “Our economy is in an even more perilous state than we, the new administration, had first envisaged.” Read more…
BUSINESS
Mixed views from Tobago
President of the Tobago Chamber of Commerce Dianne Hadad says the $2.772 billion allocation for Tobago in Budget 2016 was what the chamber “expected” to get from a “partial budget”. Her reaction was one of several responses Newsday received as stakeholders in Tobago business and tourism sector met on Monday to listen to Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s presentation of the 2015/2016 fiscal package. “It was not a bad budget in terms of Mr Imbert’s preamble and of course he laid the foundation for what we should expect. The past always affects So, I don’t think we should be surprised. However, from a general perspective the business community would not be too pleased as to the normal formula, which is the taxation to business again,” Hadad said. Chairman of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association Chris James noted that his association welcomes all the talk about a new airport, which he deemed as a plus for the sister-isle. Read more…
IMF sees growth for region’s oil importers
The growth outlook has improved for oil importers in the Caribbean but the decline in the global price of the commodity will be a drag for exporters of oil such as T&T, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said at Tuesday's launch of the World Economic Outlook (WEO). Speaking at a news conference to launch the WEO at the IMF/World Bank autumn meetings at the National Museum in Lima, Peru, IMF official Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti predicted growth of 3.8 per cent for the region in 2015 and 3.4 per cent in 2016. Milesi-Ferretti, the deputy director of the IMF´s research department, said the reasons for the improving growth outlook for Caribbean oil importers were the strengthening in the US economy and the large decline in the price of oil. Read more…
REGIONAL
Tourist who gave birth prematurely in Dominican Republic faces US$280,000 bill for “time difference
After enduring the trauma of a premature delivery in a foreign country and all the attendant concerns about her tiny newborn baby, a British tourist now faces a potential US$280,000 medical bill. Sharon Halls, from Ipswich in Suffolk, was 28 weeks and six days pregnant when she unexpectedly went into labour and gave birth to a daughter, Evie, in a private hospital in the Dominican Republic on September 28. But after paying over US$13,000 for initial emergency care, 36-year-old Halls learned that her travel insurance provider may not come up with the money. Read more…
Bahamas police chief calls for evacuation of island devastated by Hurricane Joaquin
There are grave concerns over the state of Crooked Island in The Bahamas following the passage of Hurricane Joaquin last Friday, with Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade appealing for airlift for “evacuated” residents he said needed to leave for Nassau by sunset on Sunday. Greenslade tweeted a photo of residents at the airport at Colonial Hill who were “waiting for assistance to be taken to Nassau”. A Defence Force marine on the ground told The Nassau Guardian on Sunday that there was no evacuation order for the island, but he said some residents were leaving. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
VW's Matthias Mueller: Recall to start in January
VW expects to start a recall of cars affected by its emissions scandal in January, the car giant's new chief executive, Matthias Mueller, has said. All affected cars will be fixed by the end of 2016, he told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Only a few employees have been involved in the scandal, he added in the interview. Europe's biggest carmaker has said emissions test-cheating software is present in 11 million diesel vehicles. The firm said it would also look into its various brands and models, singling out Bugatti, its supercar marque. Read more…
How a 3-D-printer changed a 4-year-old's heart and life
Mia Gonzalez spent the first 3½ years of her life missing out. She had to skip day care and dance classes because she constantly had colds and pneumonia. When Mia could go out and play, she was easily winded and took multiple asthma medications to try to help her breathing. After about 10 hospital stays, doctors realized that Mia had a malformation in her aorta, the vessel that pumps blood from the heart. The 4-year-old would need an operation to close off the part of her aorta that was putting pressure on her windpipe and making it hard to breathe, swallow and get rid of phlegm when she got a cold. "We freaked out to go from thinking she had asthma to being told she needed to have open heart surgery," said Katherine Gonzalez, Mia's mom. Read more…
7th October 2015