PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - On the Caricom front, Trinidad and Tobago has unexpectedly been drawn into a low-level confrontation against the United States, its own major trading partner. Two areas of conflict comprise online gambling (whereby players participate in virtual casinos online), as pursued by Antigua and Barbuda, and rum exports to the US, in which T&T shares concerns with some 14 regional states. Antigua and Barbuda has been subject to adverse reviews about its loose controls that have been known to welcome financial adventurers and worse.
Trinidad and Tobago
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Last month, veteran journalist Owen Baptiste, former editor in chief of both the T&T Guardian and the Trinidad Express, spent a week in Florida talking with Lawrence Duprey. This is the first of an exclusive five-part series by Baptiste, based on their long, frank discussions of Duprey’s past and his vision and hopes for the future.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC - Dame Hilda Bynoe, Grenada’s first -ever native head of state has died here after a prolonged illness, relatives confirmed. She was 91. “Grenada considers the passing of Dame Hilda as a great loss, not just to Grenada but to the Caribbean as a whole. She came from a rural place and maintained her love for the people,” said Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell. Her son Roland Bynoe described her as a “Caribbean woman. She grew up in an era when the unity of the Caribbean was important”.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - The Ministry of National Security is reported to be awaiting answers from officials of Caribbean Airlines (CAL) over the carrier’s failure to secure work permits for several of its foreign pilots. The T&T Guardian understands the ministry wrote to the airline two weeks ago inquiring about five American pilots who have been operating out of T&T. The letter was sent through CAL’s line minister Larry Howai and copied to chairman Rabindra Moonan but to date there has been no response.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC-The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will hear final submissions in the Shanique Myrie case when the court sits at its headquarters in Port of Spain on Monday and Tuesday. The Trinidad-based CCJ will hear testimony in the case brought by Myrie, 25, who alleged that when she traveled to Barbados on March 14, 2011 she was discriminated against because of her nationality, subjected to a body cavity search, detained overnight in a cell and deported to Jamaica the following day.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Unbroken education for Haitian children is one of the success stories that has emerged in the aftermath of the earthquake which rocked Port-au-Prince on January 10, 2010. The children were displaced, and to some extent they still are not studying and learning in comfortable environments. Crushing poverty, however, continues to be the proverbial albatross around their necks. The crunch of milky white stones is a constant reminder of the fateful day which claimed the lives of about 300,000 people.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Apr 5, CMC – Trinidadian author and educator, Dr Kris Rampersad is one of six international experts who will serve on the consultative body of the international Intern Governmental Committee on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage of the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The decision to appoint the experts was made at last December’s meeting of the InterGovernmental Committee in France and Rampersad was elected as Vice-Chair during the committee’s first meeting this week.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - A release from the White House in Washington and the US Department of State to the Government of T&T recognising the valuable assistance of the Government and the Attorney General in effecting the extradition of Doreen Alexander has laid to rest speculation there is some kind of diplomatic rift between the US and T&T, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan said yesterday.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Uncle Sam is still silent. Attorney General Anand Ramlogan admitted yesterday that the United States Government had not yet responded to this Government’s request for information on reports of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe in which Daryan Warner, son of National Security Minister Jack Warner, is a cooperating witness. Ramlogan was responding to questions on the matter at the post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - The second meeting of the Cariforum/EU Parliamentary Committee sought to facilitate easier trade and travel between the Caribbean and European Union (EU) states.
While the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was the main focus of yesterday's session, Trade Minister Vasant Bharath said they were also able to discuss several outstanding issues.
"One of them was the ability to travel in and out, and the fact that it was difficult at times with the use of the Schengen visa to have access to the European market," Bharath said.