NEWS
Cop and port worker on child sex charges
Highway Patrol Branch police officer Adrian Mohammed and Point Lisas port worker Anthony La Foucade were granted a total of $200,000 bail when they appeared in court yesterday charged with having sex with two underaged girls. Mohammed, 24, and La Foucade, 22, were not called upon to plead when they appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington in the San Fernando Magistrate’s Court yesterday. According to the charges, on August 5, Mohammed allegedly picked up the two girls—a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old—at Claxton Bay. Read more…
PAY FIRST CITIZENS $7M
State-owned First Citizens Bank has won an unprecedented lawsuit in the High Court against Sentinel Security Services Ltd for $7 million, the money stolen from an un-armoured van in a robbery in which a security guard was killed in two years ago. On November 27, 2013, gunmen shot dead Sentinel Security guard, Bert Clarke, when they ambushed a Sentinel van en route along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway to Piarco International Airport for the millions in cash to be flown to Tobago. The gunmen have never been captured, and the money has never been found. And now, a few months shy of the anniversary of the deadly heist, Justice Carol Gobin’s judgment in favour of First Citizens and against Sentinel has set a precedent in which pleading that money entrusted to security guards has been stolen in a robbery is not a defence as a matter of strict non-liability. Read more…
All Stars rules pan world
MASSY Trinidad All Stars are the undisputed pan champions of the world. The reigning national Panorama title holders pushed their instruments past a competitive field of pannists from USA, Canada, UK, Japan, France, the Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago. They secured the title, on Sunday evening, following the First International Panorama competition organised by Pan Trinbago at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain. Read more…
POLITICS
Al-Rawi slams Govt’s ‘cavalier response’
People's National Movement (PNM) PRO Faris Al-Rawi yesterday slammed what he saw as the cavalier response of the Communications Minister to the Opposition Leader's statements that there was an assassination threat against him. Al-Rawi was responding to criticisms from Minister Vasant Bharath to Rowley statements that the Government had hired people to kill him and to lie about him during the PNM's presentation of candidates in Market Square, Tobago. Bharath said the statements were irresponsible and designed to cause panic. Read more…
Bharath: Rowley seeks sympathy
Minister of Communication Vasant Bharath yesterday refuted as a play for public sympathy Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley’s claim that persons linked to Government are trying to kill him and assassinate his character. Bharath, in a statement yesterday, rejected as “completely false and designed to create panic” allegations made by Dr Rowley last Sunday at a People’s National Movement (PNM) rally in Scarborough, Tobago. Rowley had alleged, “For the first time in Trinidad and Tobago, the Opposition Leader is under attack from the Government. And when I’m not under attack from their friends who they hire to kill me, I’m under attack from their friends who they hire to lie about me,” (the latter a likely allusion to a recent allegation of verbal sexual harassment by former Express reporter, Anika Gumbs). Bharath’s statement did not address the issue of character assassination, although last Saturday United National Congress (UNC) campaign manager, Rodney Charles, said the UNC is not linked to the reporter, although otherwise she is said to have been the beneficiary of a million dollar Government contract. Read more…
BUSINESS
‘Win-win-win’
Finance and Economy Minister Larry Howai yesterday said no losses will be incurred through the initial public offering of the Trinidad and Tobago NGL Limited – which is expected to raise $1.4 billion – saying the move will be a “win-win-win” situation for the Government, National Gas Company (NGC) and the public. The NGL IPO – more commonly known as the Phoenix Park IPO – was launched yesterday at an event held at the Hyatt Regency, Dock Road, Port-of-Spain. TT NGL Limited was incorporated in September 2013 by the NGC for the purpose of holding shares in Phoenix Park Gas Processor Limited. NGL accquired ConocoPhillips Trinidad and Tobago Holdings Inc’s 39 percent stake in Phoenic Park. ConocoPhillips has been renamed Trinidad and Tobago Holdings LLC. NGC is now seeking to make 49 percent of NGL available to the public for investment via the IPO. “What we have seen from the issuing of this particular IPO is we have created a win-win-win for the Government, for NGC and for the public as a whole,” Howai said. Read more…
Tobago to get CNG station
One acre of land in southwestern Tobago will be provided by the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) for a compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel station. When completed, the facility will allow the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) to use their new CNG buses on the island. Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Orville London and Secretary of the Division of Infrastructure and Public Utilities (DIPU) Gary Melville met recently with officials of state-owned National Petroleum Marketing Company Limited (NP) and PTSC to discuss plans for the new station. They have set up a committee, which will meet today on three prospective sites for the station. Read more…
REGIONAL
Shift Tax Burden - Top Economist Calls For High GCT, Low Employment Taxes
One of Jamaica's leading economists, Dr Damien King, is suggesting that the Government, as part of its tax reform, lift the burden of employment taxes and transfer them to consumption tariffs such as general consumption tax (GCT). "I would like to see the tax system shift away from an excessively burdensome 43.75 per cent tax on employment that is unfair, because only a small percentage of working people pay it, and shift towards taxes that can be levelled more fairly and more uniformly," King said. King, head of the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies, Mona, said yesterday that the cumulative tax on employment is 43.75 per cent. He said transferring the burden would not only assist in growing the economy but would reduce the level of social inequality. Read more…
Antigua-Barbuda ambassador calls for strengthening of OAS to remain relevant
Antigua and Barbuda’s newly appointed ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Sir Ronald Sanders, told high ranking representatives of Western Hemisphere governments that they have to strengthen the Organization to make it relevant and meaningful.
Sanders made the remarks as he presented credentials to Secretary-General Luis Almargo Lemes at the OAS Headquarters in Washington on Monday. At a ceremony attended by ambassadors of Canada, the United States, and Latin American and Caribbean states, Sanders declared: “There has never been a time in mankind’s history when our planet has been faced with common challenges of greater magnitude than now.” Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
MH17: 'Russian missile system fragments' at crash site
Fragments of a suspected Russian missile system have been found at the site of the flight MH17 crash in east Ukraine, Dutch investigators say. They say the parts, possibly from a Buk surface-to-air system, are "of particular interest" and could help determine who was involved in the crash. But they say they have not proved a "causal connection" between the parts and the crash. MH17 crashed in an area held by pro-Russian rebels in July 2014, killing all on board. Read more…
New iPhone launch likely September 9
Apple will most likely debut its new generation of iPhones on Wednesday, September 9. The new phone is expected to feature enhancements including the force touch display, a better camera and a faster processor. Apple may also unveil a new version of the iPad -- a 12.9-inch "Pro" model, according to a report by John Paczkowski of BuzzFeed. Read more…
11th August 2015