News

AFTER seventeen hours of non-stop debate over three successive days of Parliament sittings, when the time came for Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to reply to the allegations made against her by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, Rowley and PNM MPs walked out on their own no-confidence motion, leaving Persad-Bissessar to brand him “a great deceiver”.

OPPOSITION Leader Dr Keith Rowley yesterday led his MPs in a walkout of the House of Representatives to protest Prime Minister (PM) Kamla Persad-Bissessar having the last word in Rowley’s no-confidence motion against the Government. As Rowley ended his wind-up speech, Speaker Wade Mark said the House rules or standing orders allow a Minister to join the debate belatedly.

SPEAKER Wade Mark last night ruled a case had been made out against Opposition and PNM Leader Dr Keith Rowley in relation to complaints that Rowley this week abused Parliament’s privileges by presenting documents purporting to be emails and implicating several MPs.

A WOMAN said to be a regular UNC supporter who was sitting in Parliament’s public gallery yesterday suffered what was described as a “cardiac episode” during Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s response to a no-confidence motion.

A TEAM of six police officers have been appointed to investigate purported emails, the contents of which, were read out in Parliament on Monday by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley during his no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her Government.

Workers of the Port-of-Spain City Corporation and other Government organisations will have to wait longer for their backpay because wage settlement allocations will have to go before Parliament to be approved.

A HELMET, gloves and safety glasses were pulled out of a bag by Government Chief Whip Dr Roodal Moonilal yesterday in Parliament, meant to be props for use by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley whom the Whip accused of being a fabricator.

THE UNITED States Embassy yesterday said it was not aware of any murder conspiracy involving a reporter who may have had contacts there, as it maintained that diplomatic relations with Trinidad and Tobago remain strong.

SCARY! This is how Trinidadian musician Atiba Williams described the thought of being caught in the path of the tornado which ripped through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore in the United States on Monday.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has described the first drawing of 500 residential lots under the LSA’s land for the landless programme at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts, (SAPA), as one of her administration’s “signature and creative endeavors” to address the housing problem facing Trinidad and Tobago.

Award-winning novelist, journalist, playwright and short story writer, Earl Lovelace, says as citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, “We cannot produce a meaningful civilisation without each other. We do not want to. That is why we have to reaffirm the dreams of Independence with which we began, and not allow them to drop into the forgotten crevices of our imagination.”

The Education Ministry should treat the teaching of Standard English at the nation’s schools in a “systematic way” and as a second language.

SCANDAL broke out in the House of Representatives yesterday as Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley piloted his motion of no confidence against the Government.

PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar last night described as “total fabrication”, emails purportedly sent by herself and Government officials on the issue of Section 34. The Prime Minister hastened to add, at a press conference, that she has written to Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams, asking that an investigation be undertaken into the authenticity of these emails.

ATTORNEY General Anand Ramlogan yesterday knocked the Opposition PNM on its record in relation to the Judiciary and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

RETIRED army colonel Hugh Vidal believes rumours that he was linked to Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr and his plan to overthrow the democratically elected government in 1990, may have stymied his chance of promotion to the highest military rank of Chief of Defence Staff.

TWO MEN were killed in unrelated accidents at the weekend, prompting both police and fire officials to again warn members of the motoring public to proceed with caution especially as the rainy season is fast approaching.

Residents of Diego Martin, especially senior citizens, are “very scared” that their homes and lives would again be threatened by flooding with the onset of the rainy season.

IT was the hard work done by the PNM Women’s League over the years to lift the status of women that has allowed Kamla Persad-Bissessar to become Prime Minister (PM) of TT, said Opposition Senator, Pennelope Beckles-Robinson as she gave the welcome address at the league’s 57th anniversary celebration yesterday at City Hall Port-of-Spain.

FIRED chairman of Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) Rabindra Moonan is very happy with the state in which he left the cash-strapped national carrier. He made the comments yesterday to reporters while at the home of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar in Phillippine where a meeting was held to celebrate the Government’s third anniversary since elected in 2010.