Res­i­dents of east Port-of-Spain say a trou­bling trend of po­lice of­fi­cers al­leged­ly drop­ping de­tainees in “hos­tile” neigh­bour­hoods is putting lives at risk, and are call­ing on the lead­er­ship of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) to take ac­tion against those in­volved.

Po­lit­i­cal and so­cial ac­tivist Ravi Bal­go­b­in Ma­haraj has failed in his bid to chal­lenge the de­ci­sion of for­mer House Speak­er Bridgid An­nisette-George to de­ny him per­mis­sion to re­spond to al­leged­ly defam­a­to­ry com­ments made about him in Par­lia­ment.

A Laven­tille man has been freed of mur­der­ing a fel­low res­i­dent in 2009 af­ter the State’s main wit­ness ad­mit­ted he had lied.

Po­lice say they made a ma­jor mar­i­jua­na seizure worth $47 mil­lion fol­low­ing an in­tel­li­gence-led op­er­a­tion con­duct­ed by the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit in the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion on Wednes­day.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day re­turned to the com­mu­ni­ty where she once sold veg­eta­bles as a child to de­liv­er the first batch of ar­ti­fi­cial-in­tel­li­gence-en­abled lap­tops to stu­dents, urg­ing them to use the de­vices as a “win­dow to the world.”

Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe has an­nounced that the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal will be­gin ac­cept­ing pa­tients be­fore the end of the year, as the min­istry moves to ful­ly op­er­a­tionalise the fa­cil­i­ty af­ter a decade of lim­it­ed use.

Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s East MP Stu­art Young has ex­pressed con­cern over Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed’s de­ci­sion to end spon­sor­ship of Skif­fle Bunch Steel Or­ches­tra and Siparia Del­tones Steel Or­ches­tra, de­scrib­ing it as part of an on­go­ing pat­tern of re­duced sup­port for steel­bands.

Wreck­ing op­er­a­tions are set to re­turn to Port-of-Spain, as the City Cor­po­ra­tion an­nounced yes­ter­day that en­force­ment will re­sume across the down­town busi­ness dis­trict start­ing Mon­day.

The Op­po­si­tion PNM says that “the vast ma­jor­i­ty of PNM Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment are not hold­ers of Firearm Users Li­cences and/or firearms.”

House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh is ex­pect­ed to rule on whether the Op­po­si­tion's mo­tions of priv­i­lege against the Prime Min­is­ter and At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, as well as a sim­i­lar mo­tion by Gov­ern­ment MP Bar­ry Padarath against PNM's Colm Im­bert, meet the thresh­old to be re­ferred to Par­lia­ment's Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee for in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Port-of-Spain North/St Ann's East MP, Stu­art Young, says the de­ci­sion by Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed to end spon­sor­ship of Skif­fle Bunch Steel Or­ches­tra and Siparia Del­tones Steel Or­ches­tra forms part of what he calls an on­go­ing pat­tern of re­duced sup­port for steel­bands.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice has re­port­ed a ma­jor mar­i­jua­na seizure fol­low­ing an in­tel­li­gence-led op­er­a­tion con­duct­ed by the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit in the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion on Wednes­day.