NEWS

Saharan dust may decline by Wednesday

Expect a decline in Saharan dust plumes by Wednesday. Saharan dust levels increased over the weekend and many people shared photographs of the haze across TT on Facebook and of themselves wearing dust masks. Officials at the Met Office told Newsday, dust levels will decline by Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning. One meteorologist said the dust, which is common at this time of year, was estimated to persist over the next two or three days before eventually dissipating. Read more here

Backfilling continues near UWI Debe campus

Trucks and trac­tors con­tin­ue to op­er­ate in the dead of the night back­fill­ing re­serve land near the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies cam­pus in Debe, even as two gov­ern­ment agen­cies launched sep­a­rate in­ves­ti­ga­tions. Res­i­dent Videsh Laldeo, who lives next to the back­filled area, said a team came to the area at 3 am on Fri­day and con­tin­ued back­fill­ing. “I can­not un­der­stand how lands which were de­signed as a re­serve can now be back­filled by a busi­ness­man. Who gave this per­mis­sion?” Laldeo asked, adding that the block­ing of the wa­ter­course was caus­ing him sleep­less nights. Read more here

POLITICS

Aboud chides Sinanan on oil-spill

Gary Aboud of Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) chided Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan for saying oil had dissipated from last Tuesday’s oil-spill in the sea near the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port of Spain. “Minster Sinanan’s statement suggests he completely doesn’t understand the contaminant and the risk it poses. There are serious dangers of these hydrocarbons getting into the food chain.” Aboud said the gulf is all one interconnected body of water, inclusive of its fisheries, so it made no sense for the minister to suggest the oil was gone away. FFOS programme director Lisa Premchand said rather than the oil being simply left to be pushed out by the tide into the Gulf of Paria, the pollutant should instead have been collected using booms. Read more here

Opposition demands explanation of Paria sale

The first thing Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley needs to talk about on his re­turn to T&T to­mor­row, more than his health, is Gov­ern­ment’s plan to sell Paria Fu­el Trad­ing. That is the view of Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice (MSJ) po­lit­i­cal leader David Ab­du­lah, while the Op­po­si­tion UNC lashed out at the Gov­ern­ment yes­ter­day af­ter a news­pa­per re­port­ed that Trinidad Pe­tro­le­um Hold­ings chair­man Wil­fred Es­pinet had said there was no rea­son for Gov­ern­ment to keep the state owned en­er­gy sub­sidiary. Es­pinet said a re­quest for pro­pos­al has been is­sued for Paria as well as for the Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery. He said there is no strate­gic rea­son for the state to keep Paria once fu­el se­cu­ri­ty and fu­el com­pet­i­tive­ness can be guar­an­teed and the com­pa­ny shouldn’t be owned since “the way we do it, you’ll lose mon­ey,” Read more here

BUSINESS

FCI, SBTT deliver mixed results

This week, we at Bourse review the financial performance of the two Canadian-owned banking giants listed on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE), Scotiabank Trinidad and Tobago Limited (SBTT) and FirstCaribbean International Bank Limited (FCI). We take a closer look at the financial results and provide an outlook. Read more here

REGIONAL

St James Police Strike Back - Five Guns Recovered, J$1.6m Seized, Top-Flight Gangster Killed

In a week when criminals staged a daring daylight robbery in Montego Bay, St James, escaping with millions of dollars and killing two persons (on March 10), the relentless efforts of the police in tracking down the wrongdoers paid off with the seizure of five illegal firearms, J$1.6 million in cash, and the apprehension of three persons involved in the heist. “In regards to Sunday’s robbery, we have apprehended two persons, and the mastermind was killed in a police operation in Belmont, St James,” said Superintendent Vernon Ellis, commanding officer of the St James police. “We are hot on the trail of the man who we believe was the main shooter, and we are confident that he, too, will be caught.” Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Utrecht tram shooting: Multiple people hurt in Dutch incident

Police have not taken any suspects into custody, according to Joost Lanshage, spokesman for the police in central Holland. He said the shooting was now over, but that the police operation was ongoing. Three rescue helicopters have been sent to the scene -- which has since been cordoned off -- to "monitor" the situation, Lanshage said. Read more here

Dead Philippines whale had 40kg of plastic in stomach

A dead whale that washed up in the Philippines had 40kg (88lbs) of plastic bags inside its stomach, researchers have said. Workers at D'Bone Collector Museum recovered the Cuvier's beaked whale east of Davao City earlier in March. In a Facebook post, the museum said the animal was filled with "the most plastic we have ever seen in a whale". There were 16 rice sacks in its stomach, as well as "multiple shopping bags". The museum will post a full list of the items found in the whale over the next few days. Read more here

18th March 2019

Back