PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC - The Trinidad and Tobago government Wednesday congratulated Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina who has been elected the new head of the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. The new Pope has chosen the new name Pope Francis I. He was ordained Cardinal by the late Pope John Paul II and is the first person from Latin America to be elected to the post..
Trinidad and Tobago
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad and Tobago government suffered a major setback in the courts after a High Court judge ruled that the bailout plan by the Kamla Persad Bissessar-led coalition People’s Partnership administration was unlawful. High Court judge Joan Charles Tuesday ordered the State to pay a group of Executive Flexible Premium Annuity (EFPA) policyholders all the money they invested in the failed insurance giant, plus interest. Soon after it won the May 2010 general election, the Persad Bissessar government announced a new bailout plan for CLICO policy holders.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - IT was bad enough for the United Nations to bring cholera into earthquake-stricken Haiti via its troops. But to give itself legal immunity against victims’ claims for damages is simply outrageous. In just one sentence, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has severely damaged the confidence that the people of Haiti has reposed in the UN ever since the Duvalier dictatorship fell, making room for a greater UN presence in this Caribbean country.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar says she has no information that the son of a minister in her Cabinet is allegedly being investigated by United States law enforcement officials.
Speaking with reporters as she toured several police stations on Tuesday, Prime Minister Persad Bissessar confirmed she had asked the question after media reports surfaced here last weekend on the matter.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Police Social and Welfare Association (PSWA) Tuesday said it is “more worried now” regarding the move by the coalition People’s Partnership government to precept soldiers into the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS). The PSWA met with National Security Minister Austin Jack Warner and the leader of Government Business, Dr. Roodial Moonilal, to discuss the Defence Force Amendment Bill which the government intends to use as one of the planks in the strategies to deal with the rising crime situation here.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Opposition politicians, trade unionists and non-government organisations have accused the Kamla Persad Bissessar government of seeking to impose an undeclared state of emergency in Trinidad and Tobago as it battles to deal with the escalating crime situation in the twin island republic.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - AS the saying goes, in party politics “all things are possible”—including, of course, success and defeat at free and fair elections and, by extension, related court rulings. Within the past two days, two opposition parties—one in Dominica, the other in Antigua and Barbuda—had to contend with this reality based on separate court decisions.
(Trinidad Guardian) Vasant Bharath, Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment and Minister in the Ministry of Finance and the Economy, received a courtesy call from his Costa Rican counterparts, Anabelle Gonzalez, Minister of Trade and Fernando Ocampo, Vice-Minister of Trade, on Friday at his Port of Spain offices.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Prof John Arnott Spence, who died on Wednesday night at 83, will be remembered for his sterling service to T&T and the region as a scientist, academician and spokesman for agriculture. As a UWI lecturer, public servant and independent senator, even in his retirement years his vast knowledge added value and inspired positive developments, not only in his area of expertise—agriculture—but in many other matters of national importance.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Former academic and legislator, Professor John Spence has died. He was 83.
Relatives said that he died of a heart attack late Wednesday.
Spence was a Professor of Botany and also Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and served as an Independent Senator from 1987 to 2000. He was also awarded the Chaconia Medal Gold in 1980.