NEWS

Children beaten, caregiver attacked at children's homes

Two children at the St Dominic’s Children’s Home were beaten on Monday evening by a part-time caregiver who became upset that the children wore the wrong pants and sneakers. Officials said the children, eight and nine, were beaten with a leather belt after the relief staff member learned one of them had worn a pair of pants that was not set out for him to wear. The other was beaten for wearing the wrong sneakers to school that day. The children complained to a senior staff member on Tuesday. The staff member intends to alert the Children’s Authority on Wednesday. Read more here

6 killed in 24 hours

The coun­try faced an­oth­er bloody day yes­ter­day, with a triple mur­der in Ran­cho Que­ma­do, a dou­ble mur­der in Ari­ma and a mur­der in Em­ba­cadere. A school­girl was al­so stabbed in Bel­mont and late yes­ter­day evening homi­cide of­fi­cers were called out to a stab­bing in­ci­dent in Laven­tille. Po­lice were on the scene of the fa­tal triple shoot­ing in Ran­cho Que­ma­do late yes­ter­day where three peo­ple were shot dead. Up to press time, a fourth per­son was be­ing treat­ed for gun­shot wounds at the Siparia Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty. His con­di­tion was re­port­ed as crit­i­cal. Erin po­lice said they got a re­port of a shoot­ing out­side a house near the Ran­cho Que­ma­do Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School around 6 pm. When of­fi­cers re­spond­ed, they found three men life­less in a car and one man ly­ing on the ground. Read more here

POLITICS

Sinanan: Police guard needed after protest

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan said road repairs in Moruga were being done under police supervision. He was responding to an urgent question in the Senate on Tuesday from Opposition Senator Wade Mark on protests by residents of Indian Walk, Moruga over road conditions in the area and what action was being taken to resolve this situation. Sinanan commented, said, “It is noteworthy that the protest action which took place (Monday) was actually on one of the active landslip sites. As a result of this, the contractor was unable to continue work, due to the hostility of the protesters. “However, work has recommenced under police supervision.” Read more here

AG: Assassination calls being made from prison

Mur­ders are com­mit­ted in T&T as a re­sult of pris­on­ers us­ing phones and call­ing as­sas­si­na­tion plots. That hap­pened as re­cent­ly as yes­ter­day morn­ing, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al Rawi told the Sen­ate as he pi­lot­ed the In­ter­cep­tion of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Bill. Al Rawi said the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion is one of the most crit­i­cal to be laid in Par­lia­ment. It al­lows for the in­ter­cep­tion of com­mu­ni­ca­tions with­in pris­ons and prison ve­hi­cles used to trans­port in­mates. Pro­vi­sions al­so pro­pose that in­for­ma­tion that has been in­ter­cept­ed will be ad­mis­si­ble as ev­i­dence in any pro­ceed­ings. The AG said: “In the pris­ons of Trinidad and To­ba­go as­sas­si­na­tion calls are made from the prison. Na­tion­al forces—the SSA and Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er—have ac­tion­able in­for­ma­tion that phones are be­ing used in the pris­ons and as­sas­si­na­tions are be­ing car­ried out at the be­hest of pris­on­ers and you can do noth­ing about it as you lack the priv­i­lege of us­ing that as war­rant­ed ev­i­dence in court as you’ve in­ter­cept­ed it in cir­cum­stances where the ev­i­dence isn’t ad­mis­si­ble in law.” Read more here

BUSINESS

TTIFC launches ‘cashless’ drive

Can Trinidad and Tobago transition from walking around with cash in order to conduct day-to-day transactions to doing business cashless? Is a cashless T&T a dream or reality? Read more here

REGIONAL

More employment opportunities needed for Caribbean citizens– CDB director

Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Director of Economics, Dr. Justin Ram, has talked up the need to improve employment opportunities and the quality of life for Caribbean citizens. “The Caribbean Development Bank underscores the need to build inclusive and resilient economies, to improve employment opportunities and quality of life for Caribbean citizens. Such economies are characterised by sound macroeconomic management, environmental preparedness, human development, productivity, and competiveness,” Dr. Ram said on Tuesday at the Bank’s Annual News Conference held in Barbados. Read more here

MORE CASH FOR CRIME - $2b Jump For National Security But Capital Spending Falls

The Jamaican Government will seek to table critical pieces of legislation that will enable improved security operations even as it carved out $1.7 billion more for the Ministry of National Security for fiscal year 2020-21 compared to the allocation the previous year, although capital spending will fall by $4 billion. Violence remains a key concern for the Holness administration as it expands the reach of security crackdowns to rein in murders, shootings, and other major crimes. The Government is projecting to spend approximately $852.67 billion in fiscal year 2020-21, which begins on April 1, about $6.4 billion less than its revised Budget of $859.07 billion, suggesting a comparatively flat Budget. Debt-servicing payments account for about 17 per cent of the planned expenditure, with $136.25 billion set aside for interest payments and $155.18 billion allocated for amortisation, or debt maturity. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com is hiring 20,000 workers who lost jobs because of coronavirus

D.com, one of China's largest e-commerce firms, has promised to open up more than 20,000 new positions as the country's economy struggles under the coronavirus outbreak. The company is hiring warehouse workers, couriers and drivers. Some of the positions will be temporary. The jobs are meant to "minimize the impact of the epidemic on employment in the short term," JD.com said in a statement, adding that it wants to "support stable employment." Dada Group, a local on-demand delivery provider that is backed by JD, will create an additional 15,000 positions. JD.com's supermarket chain, 7FRESH, will also reach out to employees from restaurants, hotels, cinemas and retail outlets "that are temporarily closed due to the coronavirus," the company said in a statement. Read more here

Bernie Sanders wins New Hampshire primary ahead of Pete Buttigieg

Bernie Sanders has won the New Hampshire Democratic primary contest, on a terrible night for former vice-president Joe Biden. The left-wing senator took a tight victory over centrist former mayor Pete Buttigieg, who offered a different Democratic vision in the race to take on President Trump in November. Mr Sanders declared the night "the beginning of the end" of Mr Trump. Success in New Hampshire - like Iowa - offers momentum for the race ahead. Finishing behind Vermont senator Mr Sanders were two moderates - Mr Buttigieg and Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, who emerged as a surprise contender by taking third place. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and Mr Biden - two erstwhile frontrunners - finished in fourth and fifth places. Technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Colorado senator Michael Bennet both dropped out of the race. Read more here

12th February 2020

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