Regional News

Sandals Resorts International (SRI) yesterday issued a strong denial that it owes the Government of St Lucia withholding taxes and pointedly stated that a claim being made to the contrary is designed to tarnish its “good name and reputation”.

(Trinidad Guardian) En­er­gy Min­is­ter Franklin Khan yes­ter­day told Par­lia­ment that 3,500 per­ma­nent work­ers plus 1,200 non-per­ma­nent work­ers will be af­fect­ed by the Gov­ern­ment’s planned clo­sure of the re­fin­ery in two weeks.

(Barbados Government Information Service) Anyone applying for Barbados passports for the first time, or those seeking to renew them, will now be issued with an e-passport.

(Trinidad Express) Hours after an elderly brother and sister were heard arguing, neighbours found the two dead.

(TRINIDAD EXPRESS) Former Director of Energy Industries at Industrial, Jim Catterson, says closure of the Petrotrin refinery makes no economic sense.

(TRINIDAD NEWSDAY) KIDNAP victim Natalie Pollonais was so moved by the round-the-clock efforts of the police which saw her being rescued four days after she was snatched, that she put pen to paper and wrote a thank-you letter to Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith.

(JAMAICA OBSERVER) The Government is to introduce a ban on the importation, manufacture, distribution and use of single use plastic carriers (bags) below certain sizes starting in January.

(TRINIDAD EXPRESS) Parts of Trinidad and Tobago are being lashed by heavy rains and winds as a weather system passes across the islands.

(JAMAICA GLEANER) Jamaicans in all but one parish reported yesterday that they felt a minor earthquake.

(TRINIDAD GUARDIAN)  A Miss­ing Per­sons Unit (MPU), with spe­cial­ist in­ves­ti­ga­tors, is crit­i­cal­ly need­ed in T&T to deal with the scores of miss­ing per­sons cas­es and to al­so deal with cold cas­es.

(JAMAICA OBSERVER) New York , USA — Eight months after the death of its founder, Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill has expanded its operations into the Canadian market, opening two stores in the greater Toronto, Ontario, area, home to a large number of Jamaican and other Caribbean nationals.

(Trinidad Express) Narad Motilal, the eight-year-old boy who survived the toxic smoke inhalation that killed his brother, will be discharged from hospital in time to attend the funeral today.

(Trinidad Guardian) State-owned Petrotrin will re­trench all its work­ers and not just those in the re­fin­ery as was pre­vi­ous­ly an­nounced.

(Trinidad Express) A debate on Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s description of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley as an “oreo” continues to be the centre of debate on social media.

(Trinidad Guardian) Chief Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cer Char­maine Gand­hi-An­drews ad­mits there has been an in­crease in il­le­gal im­mi­grants to this coun­try, but she is al­so ad­mit­ting she is not in a po­si­tion to give ex­act num­bers “be­cause a lot of the per­sons who have en­tered we know noth­ing about.”

BEIJING/CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela gave China another stake in the OPEC member’s oil industry and signed several other deals in the energy sector, but Beijing made no mention of new funds for Caracas during President Nicolas Maduro’s visit to his government’s key financier yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) A family’s search for their missing relative ended in heartbreak on Friday as the body of 34-year-old Hayden Chickoree was found in Arima.

(TRINIDAD GUARDIAN) A non-na­tion­al of T&T can work in this coun­try for 30 days with­out a work per­mit for one time on­ly dur­ing a year, Hous­ing Min­is­ter Ed­mund Dil­lon has point­ed out.

(TRINIDAD NEWSDAY) A BARRACKPORE mother is appealing for the public to help find her only child, who vanished from in front of their home on Wednesday morning.

CARACAS/BEIJING,  (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is traveling to China to discuss economic agreements, as the crisis-struck OPEC nation seeks to convince its key Asian financier to disburse fresh loans.