NEWS

CoP: Police worldwide use masks for security

Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith says his office is yet to receive a freedom of information request from a concerned citizen who wants to know the police's policy on the use of face masks. In a statement, Griffith said the request has not yet reached his office. He added that the use of face masks by police in the course of their duties was a practice used worldwide for decades for obvious safety and security reasons. Griffith added that he "shudders to think that persons would deliberately want to have police officers targeted and their families put in harm’s way, given the very dangerous nature of their jobs." Read more here

More than a million prank calls made to E999 last year

More than one mil­lion prank or nui­sance phone calls were made to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vices’ emer­gency com­mand cen­tre (E999) last year. Sgt Steve Mc Ken­zie of the TTPS re­vealed the sta­tis­tics yes­ter­day as he spoke about the type of calls made to E999 for 2018. Mc Ken­zie said a to­tal of 1,139,798 calls were made to E999 for the pe­ri­od Jan­u­ary 1 to De­cem­ber 31, 2018. Of that fig­ure 1,007,835 were ei­ther “prank, nui­sance, or idle type tele­phone calls,” which in­clud­ed heavy breath­ing, gig­gling and the giv­ing of false in­for­ma­tion, Mc Ken­zie said. Read more here

POLITICS

THA approach to tourism not ‘top-down’

Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles has assured local stakeholders their input is highly valued as the THA seeks to develop a tourism industry that will attract the world. He was speaking at last Friday’s tourism stakeholders meeting at the Mt Irvine Bay Resort titled Breakfast with the Chief. The meeting was an opportunity for discussion among the Chief Secretary, Secretary of Tourism, Culture and Transportation Nadine Stewart-Phillips, CEO of the Tobago Tourism Agency Louis Lewis and Tobago’s tourism industry leaders. Charles described the venture as "the continuation of a mutually beneficial process.” Read more here

Garcia: Ministry unaware of sex in Siparia school

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia says there was no ev­i­dence to prove that a teacher of Siparia West Sec­ondary School im­preg­nat­ed a teenaged stu­dent. Gar­cia was speak­ing to re­porters fol­low­ing a vis­it at the school at La Brea Trace, Siparia on Tues­day. In an in­ter­view, Gar­cia ad­mit­ted that ex­ist­ing school dis­ci­pline pro­to­cols had lapsed, adding that he was ex­treme­ly dis­ap­point­ed that in­ci­dents of vi­o­lence had not been re­port­ed to the Min­istry by school of­fi­cials. “We must know ex­act­ly what is hap­pen­ing in the school and that is why we had to come here to­day to in­ter­ro­gate the prin­ci­pal and teach­ers,” Gar­cia said. Read more here

BUSINESS

Contractors demand transparency, dialogue

Local contractors are calling on the Government to disclose the financial terms offered by China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Company Ltd (CGGC) that resulted in it being awarded a contract worth billions of dollars to construct a total of 5,000 housing units throughout Trinidad. Read more here

REGIONAL

Bell Tolls For Eddie - ‘Thanks For Everything,’ Icon Told Nation

Lauded as a political colossus who helped build the foundations of nationhood and feared as a mercurial leader who suppressed party rebels, Edward Philip George Seaga lost his final battle yesterday, dying on the date, and in the land, of his birth. He was 89. Jamaica’s fifth prime minister, who had cancer, passed away at a Miami, Florida, hospital in the United States of America. News of Seaga’s death plunged much of the nation into mourning, especially high-ranking members of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and his beloved political stronghold, Tivoli Gardens, many too overwhelmed with grief to speak. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Nusrat Jahan Rafi: 16 charged in Bangladesh for burning girl alive

Sixteen people have been charged in Bangladesh over the shocking murder of a teenager who was burned to death after reporting sexual harassment. Nusrat Jahan Rafi, 19, was doused with kerosene and set on fire on the roof of her Islamic school on 6 April, days after filing a complaint. Headmaster Siraj Ud Doula, targeted in the complaint, is among those charged. Police say he ordered her murder from prison when she refused to withdraw her accusations against him. They described the preparations for the killing as being like a "military plan". Read more here

Boris Johnson, favorite to be Britain's next PM, to face court for alleged Brexit lies

The leading candidate to succeed Theresa May as British Prime Minister has been ordered to appear in court to face allegations he lied to the public during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign. A judge at Westminster Magistrate's Court in London ordered that Boris Johnson, a former UK foreign secretary, must face a private summons on three counts of misconduct in public office. Johnson, who was the high-profile face of the Leave campaign, is accused of falsely claiming that Britain's membership of the European Union cost £350 million ($442 million) a week. Read more here

29th May 2019

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