NEWS
Floodwaters sweep Claxton Bay man to his death
The screams of Ramnath Minwah's wife and children shattered the quiet community of St John’s Trace in Claxton Bay around 6.30 pm on Saturday, when they saw him fall into a swollen river and get swept away by the strong currents. Minwah’s family and neighbours rushed to rescue him, but it was not until almost an hour later, that the man who spent his life as a boat captain, was found unresponsive, his arms wrapped around a tree. Fire services, police officers and ambulance attendants who arrived on the scene, later retrieved the body from the floodwaters. Read more here
T&TEC planned maintenance to affect parts of Trinidad November 1
T&TEC customers in parts of East and South Trinidad, as well as Tobago, will experience a temporary disruption to their supply of electricity, Tuesday 15 November 2022. Details follow in this release… Read more here
POLITICS
MP Tancoo: TT likethe Wild, Wild West
Saying nowhere, not even in one's own home, is safe anymore from criminals and gunmen, Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo has likened TT to the Wild, Wild West of yesteryear, where the only power lay in the barrel of a gun. With at least five murders recorded on the weekend, including that of a policeman in Tobago, and the murder toll reaching 530, Tancoo also wondered what it would take the Government to finally come out of its slumber and take meaningful action on crime and violence. “Yesterday (Saturday), on the doorstep of Starbucks in Sun Plaza, Monroe Road, a man was murdered in full view of families who went to buy coffee, or who went to buy bread in the Quikshoppe or chicken and chips in Royal Castle or to fill gas on the same compound. Read more here
Sinanan: Severe weather delaying construction projects
Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan says adverse weather events have caused delays in the completion of many projects around the country. Speaking to journalists in La Brea yesterday, Sinanan said rain poses a challenge to infrastructural work, including regular road paving. He said the Ministry of Works and Transport (MOWT) has 60 ongoing road paving projects, which they can only do under suitable weather. He said large constructions like the Valencia to Toco Roadway Project, the Churchill Roosevelt Highway Extension to Sangre Grande Project and the Solomon Hochoy Highway Extension to Point Fortin Project all suffered setbacks because of the heavy rainfall. Read more here
BUSINESS
ANSA McAL’s profit declines by 95.9%
Local conglomerate ANSA McAL last week declared after-tax profit of $13.73 million for the nine-month period ending September 30, 2022, a decline of 95.9 per cent, compared with the $335.15 million the company earned for the same period in 2021. The group’s results were impacted by the investment portfolios of its banking and insurance subsidiaries, said ANSA McAL chairman, Norman Sabga, in his statement on the group’s unaudited financials for the period January 1, 2022 to September 30, 2022. Read more here
REGIONAL
Guyana’s large diaspora an asset to country’s transformation
With United States-based business magazine, Forbes, reporting that Guyana has the largest diaspora population in the world, Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud has said that this is a “resource” that can accelerate and support the One-Guyana initiative. According to Forbes, Guyana’s diaspora population stands at 36.4 per cent. “Out of all sovereign countries with at least 750,000 inhabitants, Caribbean nation, Guyana, had the biggest share of its native-born population, 36.4 per cent living abroad,” the publication related. Persaud, in an invited comment on Sunday, recalled the mass migrations of 1970s and 80s due to economic degradation and political oppression. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Ukraine war: Russian activist writes letters from jail
When Vladimir Kara-Murza announced he was returning to Moscow earlier this year, his wife Evgenia knew the risk but did not try to stop him. Russia had invaded Ukraine and made it a crime to call it a war. Thousands of protesters had been arrested. Vladimir himself was a sworn opponent of President Vladimir Putin and an outspoken critic of atrocities committed by his military. Still, the opposition activist insisted on being in Russia. Now he has been locked up and charged with treason and Evgenia has not been allowed to speak to him since April. But in a series of letters to me from Detention Centre No. 5, Vladimir - who has twice been the victim of a mysterious poisoning - says he has no regrets, because the "price of silence is unacceptable". Read more here
14th November 2022