NEWS

Young people should not use ganja

People under 25 should not smoke marijuana, as their brains are are not fully developed until that age. If they are genetically predisposed to psychotic diseases, then it can be harmful. This was the view of Dr Anthony Pottinger, a gynaecologist and oncologist who has done extensive research on medical cannabis. He was a panellist at the second public consultation on the decriminalisation of marijuana held on Wednesday at the Teaching and Learning Centre of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. Read more here

Cops seize $5m from sex ring raids

An Asian mafia con­nec­tion is fu­elling the mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar world of sex slaves in Trinidad and To­ba­go, in­tel­li­gence sources close to the in­ves­ti­ga­tion have re­vealed to Guardian Me­dia. These star­tling de­tails be­gan to emerge as po­lice gath­ered more in­for­ma­tion af­ter crack­ing what they be­lieve was a ma­jor sex and drug ring op­er­at­ing in West­ern Trinidad on Wednes­day. On Wednes­day morn­ing of­fi­cers of the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Team (SORT), Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit (CTU), Fi­nan­cial In­tel­li­gence Branch (FIB) and Child Pro­tec­tion Unit(CPU) ar­rest­ed at least 18 sus­pects in West and East Trinidad and res­cued 19 South Amer­i­can fe­males. The young women were res­cued from the Stir Fry King Restau­rant along Ari­api­ta Av­enue in Port-of-Spain, a sprawl­ing house with a swim­ming pool along Morne Co­co Road near St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege and an­oth­er up­scale home at 61 West­ern Cir­cle, West­moor­ings. Read more here

POLITICS

Caricom meets with EU in Uruguay

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, along with the rest of the Caricom delegation in Uruguay for talks on resolving the Venezuela crisis, yesterday met with Federica Mogherini, vice president of the European Commission and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The delegation is headed by chairman Dr Timothy Harris, who is also PM of St Kitts and Nevis, and includes Barbados PM Mia Mottley and Caricom Secretary General Irwin La Roque. Read more here

BUSINESS

'Make social media your friend'

Sagicor staff have been encouraged to make use of social media, or they would be left behind, by American actress, singer, author, and activist Sheryl Lee Ralph Hughes. “People we are in the future. You must make social media your friend... You’ve got to get involved. It is not enough to say, ‘But I don’t know how to do this, I don’t know how to post this, I don’t have any friends.’ Get some friends! And if you can’t do it, hire a younger person and let them do it for you.” Ralph Hughes made the statement at the Sagicor Ignite 2019 motivational session for team members at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain yesterday. At the same time she promoted her podcast, Diva Defined, her new television series, Fam, and her new book, Redefining Diva. Read more here

Chamber promotes energy efficiency

The En­er­gy Cham­ber has de­vel­oped an En­er­gy Ef­fi­cien­cy De­c­la­ra­tion, recog­nis­ing the role of en­er­gy ef­fi­cien­cy in de­vel­op­ing the econ­o­my and re­duc­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s green­house gas emis­sions. To date, 11 com­pa­nies have pledged their com­mit­ment, but the en­er­gy Cham­ber hopes the de­c­la­ra­tion will be em­braced and adopt­ed by its mem­ber­ship and the wider na­tion. In a state­ment is­sued by the Cham­ber, it not­ed that en­er­gy ef­fi­cien­cy was one of the im­me­di­ate and im­pact­ful ways of op­ti­mis­ing the use of T&T’s fi­nite nat­ur­al re­sources. “En­er­gy ef­fi­cien­cy mea­sures and ini­tia­tives will be cru­cial to the ini­tial re­duc­tion of green­house gas emis­sions. Get­ting the in­dus­try to best in class lev­els of ef­fi­cien­cy is the equiv­a­lent of un­lock­ing a mar­gin­al field’s worth of gas. Read more here

REGIONAL

Hush-Hush Backlash - Fired Petrojam GM Blasts Ramharrack Gag; Open To Talks On Contract Row With Gov’t

A former general manager of the scandal-scarred Petrojam has asserted that non-disclosure agreements (NDA) have no place in the employment arrangement for public-sector employees. Further, Howard Mollison has signalled that he would be willing to hold talks with the management of the state-owned oil refinery to settle his long-running contractual dispute but is adamant that he will not make the first move. “Absolutely not!” Mollison told The Gleaner yesterday. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Flamengo football club: Ten die in Rio de Janeiro fire

A fire has engulfed a dormitory at the youth team training centre of one of Brazil's biggest football clubs, killing 10 people. Three people were also injured when the fire broke out at Ninho de Urubu, the training ground of Flamengo football club, in Rio de Janeiro. All ten victims are said by local media to be young athletes. The cause of the fire is not yet known. Flamengo is one of Brazil's biggest and best-known clubs internationally. Read more here

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says National Enquirer publisher tried to extort him

In an explosive tell-all blog post published Thursday, Jeff Bezos accused the publisher of the National Enquirer of trying to extort him. The post by Bezos on the blogging platform Medium revealed what he said were the full text of emails his representatives got from executives at AMI, the publisher of the National Enquirer. Bezos, the billionaire founder and CEO of Amazon(AMZN), alleged that AMI threatened to release compromising photos of him. His post included what he said were emails from AMI detailing what he described as "extortion and blackmail." Bezos, the world's richest person, is the single largest shareholder in Amazon, with 16% of the company's stock. Read more here

8th February 2019

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