NEWS
Belmont Secondary teachers keep word, refuse to work
Teachers at Belmont Secondary School kept their word and withheld their services on Tuesday – three days after gunmen entered the school compound and confronted a safety officer. President of the TT Unified Teachers' Association (TTUTA) Martin Lum Kin confirmed the action and renewed calls for outstanding health and safety issues to be resolved. He said staffers intend to stay away from classes until a damaged perimeter fence at the back of the school is repaired. Read more here
Dana Seetahal’s family calls for more staff at DPP’s Office ... Pained by delay in her murder case, waiting for justice
On the eve of the nine-year anniversary of Dana Seetahal SC’s murder, members of her family are still calling for justice. While 11 people are currently behind bars for the May 4, 2014 killing which rocked the nation, relatives tell Guardian Media the issue at heart is that they are still waiting for convictions over a decade later. “The preliminary enquiry ended in 2020 and up to now, it’s been three years and nothing has happened, and it was supposed to go to the High Court,” Seetahal’s niece Danielle Francois said yesterday. Francois was speaking with Guardian Media as her family donated a bench and a memorial plaque to the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) in St Augustine, which commemorated Seetahal’s contribution to the institution as well as her legacy in law yesterday. Read more here
POLITICS
Gadsby-Dolly on murder outside primary school: No one can predict crime
Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly says her ministry should not be asked to predict which crimes will happen near schools, as resources can be used and made available in response to such incidents. Dr Gadsby-Dolly was responding to UNC Senator Wade Mark during a Senate sitting on Tuesday who asked if her ministry would be adopting more proactive measures in securing students and staff at schools. Mark raised the question in relation to the murder of caretaker Ronnie Pierre outside the Munroe Road SDMS Hindu School, Cunupia, on Monday. Two other men were wounded in the attack. Read more here
Hinds: Existing law caters for home invasions Self-defence, justifiable homicide principles guide us
National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds has dismissed Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s calls for laws to deal with home invasion similar to the stand-your-ground legislation in the United States. This is because he says the laws currently on T&T’s books deal adequately with an individual’s ability to protect themselves and their property. “We have laws that deal with the question of self-defence, where persons are expected to use reasonable force in all circumstances,” Hinds said following a luncheon hosted by the Rotary Club of Port-of-Spain yesterday. (See page 7) “That is the principle that guides us. We have seen the experience of others and as we understand it, the laws and the philosophy that we practice in terms of self-defence are quite enough for us to respond, because there are many home invasions where the occupants of the house got the better hand of the intruders. There are some cases where intruders have been killed in the bedroom of the occupant and the owner of the house and those persons were not prosecuted.” Read more here
BUSINESS
Guayaguayare fishing post falling apart
In 2012, the People’s Partnership government completed a project formulated under the Patrick Manning administration, aimed at improving the lives of fishermen in southeast Trinidad. But the $35 million fish landing facility in Guayaguayare was never occupied and remains underutilised. In fact, fishermen continue to work out of a shanty village nearby with little resources. Read more here
REGIONAL
Modern healthcare part of holistic national development – President Ali
IN an effort to provide relief and state-of-the-art healthcare to thousands of Berbicians, President Dr. Irfaan Ali, on Tuesday, turned the sod for a $6.6 billion regional hospital at Plantation Bath, West Coast Berbice. More than 30,000 persons residing in Region Five are expected to benefit from improved healthcare services when the facility is completed. Government is investing more than $40 billion to construct six hospitals, including the regional hospital at Plantation Bath. The other state-of-the-art facilities are set to be built in Skeldon, Region Six; Enmore, and Diamond, Region Four; Tuschen, Region Three; and Anna Regina, Region Two. Read more here
INTERNATIONAL
Belgrade shooting: Huge police operation after Serbia school attack
At least eight students and a security guard are dead after a shooting at a school in Serbia's capital Belgrade. Another six pupils and a teacher were injured in the attack and have been taken to hospital, the interior ministry said in a statement. Police arrested a 14-year-old student at the Vladislav Ribnikar school in central Belgrade in connection with Wednesday morning's attack. The suspect is alleged to have used his father's gun, officials said. An investigation into the motives behind the incident is under way. Officers in helmets and bulletproof vests cordoned off the area around the school, located in the central Vracar neighbourhood, shortly after 08:40 local time (06:40 GMT). Read more here
3rd May 2023