NEWS
Fake cops held in San Juan, guns, car seized
Three men described by police as “known offenders” are in custody after they were caught wearing tactical police gear. One of the men is believed to be a retired police officer who worked in the Northeastern Division. Police said they received reports of the men being in the area at around 3.30 am. Members of the Northeastern Division Emergency Response Patrol and the San Juan CID went to Silver Mill, where they found and arrested the three men, two of whom were wearing police uniforms. Read more here
Two teenage girls missing
Police are seeking the urgent assistance of the public in locating 16-year-old Kayla Parey and 15-year-old Sarah Ali. Parey is a ward of the St. Jude’s School for Girls, Belmont Circular Road, Port of Spain. She was last seen at the SERVOL Life Centre School, around 11:00 am on Tuesday 29th October 2019. She was reported missing to the Belmont Police Station around 3:55pm on the same date. Parey is of African descent, 5 feet, 6 inches tall, 160lbs, slim built, with an afro hairstyle, and a dark brown complexion. She was last seen wearing her SERVOL Life Centre school uniform - cream shirt and brown pleated skirt. Read more here
POLITICS
UNC has no right
Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis said the Opposition UNC has no right to ask about fired sports minister Darryl Smith and the government’s sexual harassment policy since the former PP government had crafted any such document and also, PP government officials acted badly when facing their own sexual harassment claims. She spoke at a PNM rally at Exodus Pan Yard, Tunapuna on Tuesday night. The government is now resisting calls to publish the report of the probe into the payment of a $150,000 settlement to Smith’s former aide, claiming it is unusable as Smith was not interviewed, two claims the Opposition rejects. Robinson-Regis said, “Keep quiet about Darryl Smith. Their track record is less than stellar.” She said under the PP a woman filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against an official, but suddenly dropped it. “Mysteriously she was given a house and the case never went forward.” Read more here
PM all but cleared in Miami bank account scandal
Preliminary findings by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) have all but cleared Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley of any wrongdoing in relation to allegations of financial impropriety. During his contribution to the budget debate on October 9, 2018, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal said he visited banking institutions in Miami where he retained emails and documents which revealed Rowley received funds from the A&V Drilling fake oil scandal. He called out banking account numbers and named Dr Rowley and former People’s National Movement (PNM) candidate for Siparia, Vidya Deokiesingh. At yesterday’s weekly police media briefing, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said when the matter was brought to its attention the TTPS launched an investigation. Read more here
BUSINESS
UN a force for global peace and stability
In his inaugural speech on the day he was officially appointed president of the 74th United Nations General Assembly, Prof Tijjani Muhammad-Bande reminded his colleagues that the world looks up to the United Nations. “We must never forget that… (the UN) is a veritable vehicle for attaining peace and security, sustainable development and universal human rights.” It’s his goal then to use his office to “give privilege” to the UN’s primary concerns – global peace and security – as he advocates for the implementation of core elements of the organisation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), including the number one and number two targets, poverty eradication and zero hunger. He’s also tackling education, inclusion and climate action. Read more here
Sorrel as you’ve never seen it: think pink
From a single seed, Sharon Rosella Roopsingh is growing her dream – pink sorrel that she’s turned into a thriving business. Four years ago, she and her husband, Renison, bought a tin of seeds. And from those seeds grew one pink plant. The unusual colour caught Roopsingh’s attention. (Incidentally, her middle name is also a variation of sorrel -- it's the name the fruit, a variety of hibiscus, goes by in Australia.) "When my husband and I first saw it, it looked like the fruit (sorrel) on the tree was spoilt.” But they left it alone and eventually realised that’s just how the fruit was. “We found it unusual and exotic and we went with it." Read more here
REGIONAL
Don Wanted Heads - Prosecutors Release Details Of Confessions In Grisly Killings As Three Plead Guilty To Non-Capital Murder
A don gave the orders for a St Catherine woman and her teenage daughter to be decapitated because they were viewed as informers, according to the video-recorded confessions of three of the men convicted for the grisly crime. Transcripts of the confessions were released by prosecutors yesterday after Fabian Smith, Adrian Campbell, and Rushane Goldson pleaded guilty to non-capital murder just before they were set to go on trial in the Home Circuit Court for the 2011 double killing that triggered national outrage. Read more here
First crude cargo by February
Guyana’s Crude Lifting Agreement (CLA) is expected to be completed in the coming week even as the country is working towards its first lifting of crude by late February or March 2020. At a news conference on Wednesday hosted at the National Communications Network (NCN), Director of the Department of Energy (DoE), Dr. Mark Bynoe, said that crude will be sold – more or less – at a million barrels per lift. By the time the country is producing at a peak of 120 barrels of oil per day, a new lift would be anticipated every 8 to 10 days. Should ‘first oil’ be possible in December, Guyana would not lift its first volume of crude until one month after. Dr. Bynoe also explained that the first entitlement of crude will go to ExxonMobil. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
The 'Giuliani factor' that might condemn Trump to impeachment
Rudy Giuliani's fingerprints are everywhere. Despite being invisible for days after shelving his train wreck TV interviews he is emerging with President Donald Trump as the most dominant and intriguing figure in the impeachment drama. The man once feted as America's mayor is looming over events on Capitol Hill as details of his expansive role in the scandal fill publicly released witness testimony. "He was always swirling around somewhere," US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testified, adding that Giuliani's shadow foreign policy mission in Ukraine got more "insidious" as time went on. Read more here
Bosco Ntaganda sentenced to 30 years for crimes in DR Congo
7th November 2019