NEWS
Richards, Campbell golden at Florida Relays
Trinidad and Tobago quarter-miler Jereem "The Dream" Richards was integral in leading Adidas-sponsored team AdiPure to men’s 4x400m gold in the Olympic Development division of the Pepsi Florida Relays at the Percy Beard Track in Gainesville, Florida, on Saturday. Richards, who ran the second leg, was joined by American teammates Noah Williams, Josephus Lyles and Noah Lyles. The quartet clocked three minutes, 2.99 seconds to top the field of four teams. Coming in second was Athletics Canada in 3:08.47 and Empire Athletics finished third in 3:11.79. Another Empire Athletics team contested the event but did not finish. Read more here
Burst WASA line causes sinkhole in heart of Sando
San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello yesterday called for an upgrade of water pipelines, after a ruptured line created a sinkhole in the heart of the southern city. Members of the public and at least one business owner were inconvenienced by the occurrence, as lower High Street, from Penitence Street, was subsequently blocked off to vehicular traffic. The hole, which was estimated to be at least five feet deep, was observed early yesterday morning near Yufe’s store and the La Brea Taxi Stand. Unsure where he would get a La Brea taxi after access along the road was blocked, an elderly man complained that the situation was unacceptable. Read more here
POLITICS
Abdulah rejects UNC's position on electricity hikes
Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) political leader David Abdulah scoffed at the UNC's public opposition to any proposal to increase domestic electricity rates. He did so during a virtual news conference on Sunday. Abdulah said electricity rates should be increased only for large businesses in TT who could afford it, not households or small and medium enterprises (SMEs). He scoffed at the UNC's opposition to increasing domestic electricity rates. Abdulah claimed that in its two incarnations in government (1995-2001 and May 2010- September 2015), the UNC was supportive of arrangements that provided fertile ground for such increases. Read more here
UNC slams AG Office’s reason for ‘missing’ Vindra file A nonsense excuse
Chaguanas West MP Dinesh Rambally has rubbished the justification given by the Office of the Attorney General in its bid to get a favourable response to its bid overturn the outcome of a $20 million malicious prosecution lawsuit brought by nine men formerly accused of the kidnapping and murder of businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-Coolman. Speaking at the United National Congress (UNC) Sunday Media Briefing yesterday, Rambally repeatedly referred to a report in yesterday’s Sunday Guardian, which detailed the claims being made by the AG’s Office in its application to set aside the default judgment that was obtained by the men and the corresponding compensation assessed for them. In the application, the AG’s Office claimed that when the lawsuit was filed by the group’s legal team led by Senior Counsel Anand Ramlogan, of Freedom Law Chambers, on May 29, 2020, it was served on State Counsel III Natoya Moore from the Solicitor General’s Department, who was allegedly not designated to make the collection. Read more here
BUSINESS
Women in business still face obstacles
Despite T&T having its second consecutive female President, women in the business world still have a long way to go before they are treated in the same way as men, according to several female business leaders who spoke to Sunday Business Guardian. Many more women still need to break the proverbial glass ceiling, the female business leaders said. In March, Christine Kangaloo was sworn in as the seventh President of T&T and she also has the honour of being the second female President. President of the Human Resource Management Association of T&T Cavelle Joseph-St Omer said women are making progress but “slowly.” “In T&T, women are rising (slowly, but rising nonetheless) into positions that allow them to demonstrate influence in action, geared towards the achievement of organisational goals. We observe this in politics, civil society organisations, academia, and the corporate world. Read more here
Angostura records $1b in revenue
Spirits producer Angostura has recorded revenue of more than $1 billion. This after two years impacted by Covid-19, during which time Angostura Holdings Ltd reinforced its investment to support future growth of its international business and the local market’s full reopening in fiscal 2022, chairman Terrence Bharath said in his statement on the group’s financial results for the year ended December 31, 2022. Read more here
REGIONAL
3,000 nurses to be trained in three years
Recognising that Guyana’s health sector is rapidly advancing with the construction of new hospitals and the procurement of state-of-the-art equipment, the Ministry of Health (MOH) is set to roll out, within a month’s time, a registered nursing programme, aimed at training 3,000 persons in three years. This was announced by Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, on Saturday at the opening ceremony of the Lusignan Diabetes Comprehensive Centre on the East Coast of Demerara. “In about a month’s time, we are going to open up to the general public and qualified persons…We are opening up a call for persons who are interested in doing the registered nursing programme. We want to start a programme with 1,000 persons this year,” the health minister said. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Malaysia ends mandatory death penalty for serious crimes
Malaysia's parliament has voted to remove the country's mandatory death penalty, potentially sparing more than 1,300 prisoners on death row. The country has had a moratorium on executions since 2018. But the abolition now removes the death penalty as the mandatory sentence for 11 serious crimes, including murder and terrorism. Judges have retained discretion to impose capital punishment in exceptional cases. But for the most serious crimes, the courts will now favour life imprisonment sentences of up to 40 years, or corporal punishment such as caning, lawmakers said. Speaking in parliament on Monday, Malaysia's deputy law minister said capital punishment was irreversible and had not worked as a deterrent to crime. "The death penalty has not brought the results it was intended to bring," said Ramkarpal Singh. Read more here
3rd April 2023