THE WEEK IN TRINIDAD 11 - 17 FEB 2007
More than 55000 people are leaving Trinidad for the long Carnival weekend.
Last year, some 35000 people left, according to official figures .
Housing Minister Keith Rowley made his first court appearance in his effort
to strike out a report which forms the basis of a criminal investigation
into the removal of material from the Scarborough Hospital project to a
private housing development at Mason Hall, Tobago.
Public Servants represented by the Public Services Association are to get
salary increases of between 19 and 28 percent.
Residents of Chatham and the south west peninsular, including the Parish
priest, deny the PM's statement that drug cartels had joined the
anti-smelter fight. They continue to blame the PM for not meeting with them
despite several requests over the last three years and vowed to continue the
fight against the smelter.
Seismic survey begins in the Gulf of Paria near Otaheite where PM Manning
plans construction of a $3 billion industrial estate on reclaimed land.
Some 50 heavily armed police officers swooped down on the Masjid Al Tawbah
mosque in Tobago searching for arms, ammunition and other illegal items.
They seized two masks, duct tape, a dozen tights, number plates and maps.
The University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) has filed an action aimed at
stopping members of the public, including journalists, from accessing
information about its chairman Ken Julien, under the Freedom of Information
Act
From an editorial published on 15 February, 2007 "Over the past five years,
there has been a 300 percent rise in killings. Between 2004 and 2005,
woundings and shootings went up by 30 percent, rapes and other sex offences
by the same, burglaries by 15 percent; robberies by nine percent; and white
collar crime by 14 percent. Gang-related murders increased by nearly 50
percent between 2003 and 2006, while drug-related killings went up by 14
percent in the same period.
Fruit vendor found strangled bringing the murder toll for the year so far to
37.
J. Chin Aleong
www.westindiana.com
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