NEWS
Man charged with murdering retired cop and wife in Cunupia
More than one week after the bodies of retired police corporal Kenneth Mackhan and his wife Lillawati were found at their Cunupia home, a 24-year-old man was charged with their murders. The police, in a media release on Tuesday, said Jewan Ethan Ramkissoon was charged by Cpl Smith of the Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region III after receiving advice from deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Joan Honore-Paul on Tuesday. Ramkissoon is expected to appear before a Chaguanas magistrate on Wednesday. Read more here
79 human trafficking victims destined for T&T rescued
Venezuela’s Navy yesterday broke up three human trafficking camps on the country’s Orinoco Delta and rescued 79 people, including 25 minors, whom they said were being trafficked to criminal gangs in T&T. Through its Twitter account, the Armada Bolivariana said a patrol in the Orinoco River Delta, a vast jungle and river area, intercepted an illegal operation “dedicated to human trafficking” and also arrested 39 individuals and seized two boats. The Orinoco Delta, which covers all of Delta Amacuro State and parts of Monagas State and Sucre State in eastern Venezuela, has for decades been a centre of illegal human and drug trafficking. A vast delta of the Orinoco River, it comprises a network of tributaries which empty into Gulf of Paria and the Atlantic Ocean. Yesterday’s raid comes amid reports of a major human trafficking network operating between T&T and Venezuela. An inquiry spearheaded by Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly has linked the disappearance of scores of migrants at sea to this criminal activity. Read more here
POLITICS
Independent Senator calls for licks for certain crimes
Independent Senator Anthony Vieira on Tuesday called for the return of flogging, as a punishment for and deterrent to crime, chiefly acts of domestic violence. He spoke in the Senate on a private motion by Opposition Senator Saddam Hosein which called on Government to be condemned for its failure to deal with crime. “One of the reasons people fall in line in Singapore is that there is a physical consequence for anti-social behaviour," Vieira said. Read more here
Padarath denies knowledge of police probe
“I have nothing to hide.”That was the frank comment from Princes Town MP Barry Padarath when questioned yesterday about allegations he was the subject of a possible police investigation. Padarath left the country on March 21, one day before Trinidad and Tobago closed its borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to travel to the US to be with his adopted daughter. Over the past few weeks, however, allegations surfaced on social media that he was the possible target of a police investigation and a home connected to one of his relatives had been searched as part of an ongoing investigation. Read more here
BUSINESS
Auditor General highlights T&T’s debt sustainability
Government has an $18,992 balance a $7 million loan it took in 1941 under the War Loan Ordinance of 1941. It’s one of several loans the Government has with local financial institutions which amount to close to $50 billion. Read more here
REGIONAL
40 more deportees among 220 Jamaicans coming in a week
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced that 40 deportees from the United States are among 220 Jamaicans to return by air within seven days. He made the announcement a short while ago at a digital press conference following today's Cabinet meeting. In April, 46 deportees arrived in Jamaica from the United States. At the press conference, Holness also reported that there have been eight additional COVID-19 cases in Jamaica pushing the total to 564. Read more here
‘End winner-takes all’
Should his party win the 2020 General and Regional Elections, President David Granger said that he will, once again, invite the main opposition, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), to the discussion table on shared democracy. In an interview on NCN’s Context on Monday, the President said that it is his strong view that there must be an end to the winner-takes-all formula that has affected the past governance of Guyana. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Romina Ashrafi: Outrage in Iran over 'honour killing' of girl
Police in northern Iran have arrested a man accused of murdering his 14-year-old daughter in an "honour killing" that has sparked widespread outrage. Romina Ashrafi ran away from home in Gilan province with her 35-year-old boyfriend after her father objected to their marriage, local media said. The pair were found by police and Romina was sent home despite reportedly telling them she feared for her life. Last Thursday night, she was allegedly attacked by her father in her bedroom. News outlet Gilkhabar.ir reported that Romina was "decapitated" with a sickle, and that afterwards the father walked outside the house "with the sickle in his hand and confessed". Read more here
Riot police take zero tolerance approach to Hong Kong protests as tensions build
Around 300 people were arrested across Hong Kong Wednesday, as sporadic protests over a controversial new national security law were met by a massive police presence and zero tolerance approach, with pepper spray, kettling and searches used to quickly contain any potential unrest. Riot police detained and arrested dozens of people in the busy shopping area of Causeway Bay and Central, the city's main global business hub, during scattered and seemingly spontaneous protests over the law, which critics say threatens basic political freedoms and civil liberties. Multiple protesters could be seen wrestled to the ground by police, and pepper spray and pellets were fired into crowds gathered in densely populated areas. Arrests were also made in Mong Kok, in Kowloon, police said. Read more here
27th May 2020