All posts by News

Obama’s Achievement

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 05, 2008

Barack ObamaTuesday, June 3, 2008, marked a special moment in the history of the United States of America and the contemporary world. It was the day when Barack Obama became the nominee of the Democratic Party to contest the 2008 elections in November. Some said it couldn’t be done; some said that the Democratic Party would never elect an African American as their standard bearer; some even said that even if he were nominated he would not live to realize his dream. They must have been thinking about Dr. Martin Luther King.
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Man, 54, charged with raping girl, 8

Teen arrested too

South Bureau
Tuesday, June 3rd 2008

ViolenceFifty-four-year-old Ricky Ali appeared in court yesterday, charged with the rape of an eight-year-old girl.

A neighbour, a 16-year-old schoolboy, was also charged with raping the girl on a separate date.

Both were refused bail when they appeared before Magistrate Ramraj Harripersad in the Mayaro Magistrates’ Court.
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Failed leadership, not a failed state

By Raffique Shah
June 01, 2008

Hall of JusticeFor many decades Scandinavian countries-Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland-have ranked highest in the world in economic and social indices. Far from being endowed with an abundance of natural resources, these countries wisely used what little they had (except Norway, which became oil-rich in the 1970s) to develop societies that are at the upper spectrum of global rankings in just about every field. They rank among the top ten countries in income distribution (rich-poor gap), per capita gross national income (GNI), and several other globally accepted indicators of successful countries.
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Hope is Dead

By Rhondor Dowlat
Wednesday, May 28 2008
newsday.co.tt

Hope is DeadEIGHT-YEAR-OLD Hope Arismandez is dead.

The little girl’s battered and bruised body was found in a canefield in the village of Petersfield, on the outskirts of Felicity, late last evening.

Hope was raped, buggered and stabbed to death. Her semi-nude body was left on a dirt road in the canefield, which runs parallel to Pierre Road, Charlieville.

Homicide detectives disclosed that there was a stab-wound to the anus and a knife was recovered from the canefield.
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A ‘failed state’? Not my native land

By Raffique Shah
May 25, 2008

Hall of Justice“Breathes there the man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! If such there breathe, go, mark him well; for him no minstrel raptures swell; High though his titles, proud his name, boundless his wealth as wish can claim, Despite those titles, power, and pelf, the wretch, concentered all in self”

Sir Walter Scott

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Commission of inquiry to probe Udecott

By Sean Douglas
Saturday, May 24 2008
newsday.co.tt

Patrick ManningPRIME Minister Patrick Manning yesterday agreed to set up a commission on inquiry into the controversial Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) and the practices of the construction industry, in place of the joint select committee (JSC) he had previously proposed.
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Teens freed from YTC

…3-month lock-up illegal, says judge

By Denyse Renne
May 22nd 2008
trinidadexpress.com

Hall of JusticeBrothers Rion and Jerivorn Woods were reunited with their grandmother yesterday after a High Court judge ruled that their three-month incarceration by a magistrate during a custody dispute was illegal.

Justice Amrika Tiwary-Reddy, presiding at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain ordered that the two boys be immediately released into the care of their grandmother Francelia Woods and a detailed letter be written to the Commissioner of Prisons John Rougier and Tobago Magistrate Joan Gill expressing the court’s “grave concern of this matter…”.
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Nothing to hide, nothing to fear

By Raffique Shah
Sunday, May 18th 2008

Calder HartI have spoken with Calder Hart only once, when he belatedly responded to a call I had made to UDeCOTT seeking to talk with him on a story I was working on. It turned out that he had been out of the country when I had tried to reach him. He was very polite, even effusive, promising to talk with me anytime, on any matter concerning UDeCOTT. He came across as a journalist’s delight: most people in his position normally refer lowly plebs of the Fourth Estate to some PR “spin doctors”, who, in turn, ask for questions to be formally e-mailed to them, and then take forever to give half-answers.
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Keeping PNM Honest

By Dr. Selwyn R Cudjoe
May 15, 2008

PNMFive months ago, the PNM was elected to serve as the Government of the people of T&T although it received 43 per cent of the votes.

On that November night, after hearing the results of the elections I, among others, streamed down to Balisier House to celebrate yet another victory. We were elated that our party had captured government for another five years.
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