NEWS
Three years after husband murdered in Tobago –WOMAN GUNNED DOWN
Police and undertakers were kept very busy over the weekend as six people were murdered – three on Saturday and three on Sunday – in separate and unrelated incidents. Among the murders on Sunday were a Carenage businesswoman whose violent death poured fresh grief on her relatives, almost three years after her husband was found murdered in Tobago. Police said Radica Dabideen, 69, was attending to a man whom she believed to be a customer on Sunday at 8.45 am, at the family's businessplace, Ravi's by the Bay, in Carenage. Read more here
CXC moving ahead with full online testing
The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) is moving towards full online testing, according to Registrar and Chief Executive Officer Dr Wayne Wesley. He reported that work was still being done to get member states ready for the full digitisation of all examinations. In April 2016, CXC piloted its electronic testing platform which was followed by the launch of the January 2017 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) multiple choice exams. “This year, we are now capable of doing all our multiple choice examinations electronically and we are moving soon to have similar situations for Paper 2,” the CXC CEO said. “However, given the vast difference across the region with respect to the IT infrastructure that is required for the administration of electronic testing, we have to be working currently with the ministries on a particular schedule that will see us over a period of time implementing electronic testing. But we have started that process and we are hoping that it will move quickly in the right direction.” Read more here
POLITICS
Moonilal hits lack of CCTV cameras, scanners
Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has lamented a lack of CCTV cameras nationwide and mobile scanners to help police fight violent crimes. Addressing the UNC's weekly Sunday press briefing, Moonilal claimed that across TT, only 46 per cent of police CCTV cameras were working. Trinidad had 730 working CCTV cameras out of a complement of 1,607 cameras, he said. Tobago also had fewer than half its CCTV cameras working, just 90 cameras out of 189. He also complained that after $27 million was spent on mobile scanners which would let police detect guns hidden in passing vehicles, these devices were non-functional. Read more here
Opposition demanding Government announce election date today
The United National Congress (UNC) says Government must announce the date for the next local government election by this morning because councillors and aldermen reporting to duty will be occupying their offices illegally. At a press conference yesterday, Opposition Senator Wade Mark and Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal described Government’s attempt to extend the terms of local government representatives by a year as “a naked, brazen and ugly abuse of power” and accused them of attempting to hijack democracy. “Even before the opposition had a press conference this morning, the government should have addressed this country already. In fact, Dr Rowley and or Mr Armour should address this country by sunset today, Sunday, and indicate what is happening tomorrow,” Moonilal said. Read more here
BUSINESS
Trade ministry, scrap iron dealers hold talks
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and the Trinidad and Tobago Scrap Iron Dealers Association (TTSIDA) held talks on changes to the industry on Friday. The meeting took place at the head office of the MTI, Nicholas Tower, Port of Spain. The ministry team was led by permanent secretary Ayleen Alleyne-Ovid and deputy permanent secretary Randall Karim. The ministry has been overseeing the rollout of the Scrap Metal Act, 2022, and Scrap Metal Regulations, 2023. The TTSIDA delegation was led by president Allan Ferguson and included vice-president Eros Seejattan, vice-chairman of the Transition Team Isa Mohammed, and Scrap Metal industry representatives. Read more here
REGIONAL
Guyana well-positioned to be major player in tourism
With its plethora of natural attributes, Guyana must focus on building the necessary infrastructure and a brand which can make it competitive in the tourism market. This is according to President, Dr Irfaan Ali, who delivered the feature address at the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana’s (THAG) annual President’s Awards Gala and Auction on Saturday night. He said that Guyana’s tourism product is community-based and targeted, and is therefore very important to the economy. “Tourism is going to be one of the main components of the structure of our economy now and in the future. We have to now work on building a structure around this model,” President Ali related. He stated that the model will contain the core attributes of what Guyana is going to sell to the world. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Ukraine war: Wagner chief vows to hand Bakhmut to Russian army by June
The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group has vowed to transfer control of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut to the Russian army by 1 June. Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed to have captured Bakhmut on Saturday, but Kyiv says it still controls parts of the city. Ukraine says its troops are still advancing on the outskirts of Bakhmut. But Mr Prigozhin said his troops will start handing over the city to the Russian army on Thursday. "Wagner will leave Artemovsk from 25 May to 1 June," Mr Prigozhin said in an audio recording on Telegram. Bakhmut was previously known as Artemovsk, in honour of a Soviet revolutionary, before Ukraine renamed it. He said that Wagner had set up "defence lines" on the west of the city ahead of the transfer. Read more here
22nd May 2023